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BUTLER 

Argument  Before  the 

Tewksbury  Investigation 

Committee. 


RA 
982 
T4 
S9 
1883a 


ARGUMENT 


BEFORE  THE 


Tewksbuey  Investigation  Committee, 


GO.VERNOR  BENJ.  F.  BUTLER, 


UFON  FACTS  DISCLOSED   DURINQ   THE  RECENT 
INVESTIQA  TION, 


July  15,  1883. 


PRINTED  FOR  THE  INFORMATION  OF  THE 

PEOPLE  BY  THE  DEMOCRATIC 

CENTRAL   COMMITTEE. 


PEEFAOE. 


The  following^  is  a  verbatim  report  of  the  speech  made 
by  Governor  Butler  on  the  15th.  of  July,  1883.  Not  a 
word  which  has  l)eeii  objected  tC'  by  the  Kepublican  news- 
papery  has  been  omitted.  Some  additions  have  been  made, 
necessary  to  have  the  subject  understood  by  those  who  read 
the  argument,  but  which  were  not  necessary  to  be  spoken 
to  the  Committee,  who  were  familiar  with  the  evidence. 

"  The  graces  taught  in  tlie  schools,  the  costly  ornameuts,  and  studied 
'•  contrivances  of  speech,  shock  and  disgust  men  when  their  'own  lives 
■'and  the  fate  of  their  wives,  their  children,  and  their  country  hang  on 
"the  decision  of  the  houi'."  —  Webster. 


ARGUMEI^T 


BEFORE    THE 


Tewksbury  Investigation  Committee. 


Sunday  Globe  of  Jm.Y  15,  1883. 

I  Aur  not  of  counsel  in  tliis  case.  I  occupy  a  different  position. 
If  I  were  in  the  position  of  counsel,  I  should  be  permitted  to  say 
many  things  that  I,  perhaps,  in  my  position,  shall  not  feel  myself 
called  upon  to  sa}'.  The  arguments  of  counsel  to  a  tribunal  are  only 
valuable  in  so  far  as  tliey  bring  to  the  attention  of  that  tribunal  such 
absolute  facts  and  matters  of  evidence  as  should  bear  upon  the  ques- 
tion at  issue.  And,  if  counsel  depart  from  that,  then  their  remarks 
become  worse  than  useless.  Counsel  rarely  ever  do  that.  In  this 
case,  while  I  pardon  much  to  the  counsel  for  the  defence,  yet  if  I  can 
show  30U  that  his  clients  have  misled  him,  and  that  he  has,  by  their 
instiuction,  felt  himself  obliged  to  put  before  you  absolute  untruths, 
why,  then  you  will  know  what  amount  of  allowance  to  make  for  the 
rest  of  his  argument. 

The  counsel  has  made  a  very  severe  attack  upon  a  verj'  respectable 
lady,  Mrs.  Warner,  long  engaged  in  benevolent  work,  who  has  come 
here  and  told  the  exact  truth.  He  was  misled  into  that  by  the  instruc- 
tion of  one  of  the  Marshes,  who  sat  behind  him.  The  case  was  this  : 
Mrs.  Warner  testified  the  State  authorities  gave  her  charge  of  a  child 
by  the  name  of  Wijlie  Marshall ;  that  when  she  took  that  charge, 
Willie  Marshall  being  an  infant  of  tender  age,  she  nursed  and  pro- 
vided for  him  as  well  as  she  could  under  the  permission  of  the  State 
Board  of  Health,  Lunacy  and  Charity  ;  the  child  was  then  put  into 
Tewksbury  and  kept  there  fourteen  days  without  her  knowledge ;  that 
she  followed  it  and  took  it  out  of  Tewksbury.;  that  while  the  child 
was  under  her  charge,  during  the  four  months  previous,  and  at  the 
time  it  went  to  Tewksbury,  it  was  an  absolutely  healthy  child  ;  that 
when  it  came  out  of  Tewksbury  its  eyes  were  affected  wilh  syphilitic 
lunuing  sores,  a  disease  caught  in  the  institution,  presumably  due  to 
being  washed  in  the  same  water  with  other  diseased  infants.  By  kind 
and  careful  attention,  since  the  child  left  the  almshouse,  he  has  got 
well,  except  that  he  lost  his  eyebrows.  If  she  foisted  that  story  upon 
the  committee,  if  it  is  untrue,  she  does  not  deserve  a  place  on  earth. 


2 

The  counsel  has  told  you  she  has  done  so,  and  his  client  pointed  him 
to  what  is  called  a  '-nominal  entry,"  which  he  said  was  made  in  order 
to  give  her  charge  of  the  child,  and  that  he  never  was  at  Tewksbury 
at  all,  and  that  Mrs,  Warner  deliberately  lied.  I  hold  in  my  hand 
volume  27  of  the  Tewksbury  records,  where  I  find  this  entry  :  — 

"  No.  55,261.  Willie  Marshall,  from  Boston  ;  admitted  June  14, 
1877 ;  born  in  Boston  ;  two  years  old ;  parents,  Hannah  Elizabeth 
Connors  and  Hiram  Stone  ;  a  ward  of  Mrs,  Warner's ;  discharged, 
June  14,  1S77." 

This  is  the  "  nominal  admission  "  of  which  the  counsel  spoke  when 
he  said  Willie  Marshall  never  was  in  Tewksbury.  Yet  in  this  same 
volume  27  of  the  Tewksbury  records  I  find  the  following  entry :  — 

"No,  53,661.  Willie  Marshall,  from  Boston;  admitted  Oct.  3, 
1877;  born  in  Boston;  two  years  old;  mother,  Hannah  JiLlizabeth 
Connors;  father,  O,  H,  Stone;  discharged  Oct,  17,  1877,"  The 
very  date  the  witness  testified  she  took  Willie  from  Tewksbury,  after 
he  had  been  there  14  da3-s, 

I  now  turn  to  the  register  of  inmates  at  the  Tewksbury  Alms- 
house, and  I  find  "No,  53,661,  Willie  Marshall,  two  years  of  age, 
birthplace  unknown  ;  from  Boston  ;  admitted  Oct,  3,  1877  ;  deserted  ; 
discharged  from  the  institution  Oct,  17,1877;  left  at  103  Kendall 
Street,"  So  that  the  record  exactl}^  confirms  Mrs.  Warner,  and  yet 
only  a  partial  record  was  put  before  you,  to  deceive  you ;  and  this 
good  woman  was  not  only  accused  by  the  counsel  of  being  a  liar,  but 
he  said  that  Moses  Sargent,  Mr.  Brown's  detective,  went  down  and 
talked  with  her,  and  found  out  that  she  was  a  liar,  and  didn't  want 
anything  more  of  her.  How  widel}'  from  the  truth  the  counsel's 
client  misled  him,  and,  through  him,  tried  to  cheat  you  !  From  one 
instance  learn  all.  I  do  not  think  the  counsel  meant  to  do  this  cheat, 
but  I  do  think  his  client  did  mean  it.  At  least,  his  client,  knowing 
better,  sat  still  by  his  side  and  allowed  counsel  to  slander  this 
woman's  character  in  his  presence  and  in  the  presence  of  the 
people  of  the  Commonwealth.  I  sent  for  the  record  down  stairs 
with  this  result. 

Now,  gentlemen,  what  is  this  State  institution?  It  was  founded 
under  a  law  passed  in  1852,  receiving  its  first  inmates  in  1854,  for 
the  purpose  of  taking  care  of  all  State  paupers ;  that  is,  those  born 
of  parents  not  having  any  legal  settlement  in  this  State,  and  no 
others ;  and  j-ou  know  it  requires  a  certain  term  of  residence  in  this 
State,  and  the  paying  of  certain  taxes,  both,  to  give  a  settlement. 
And  the  counsel  thinks  it  very  remarkable  that  a  large  percentage  of 
aliens  should  be  found  in  tlie  institution.  Why,  the  institution  was 
only  made  for  those  who  were  aliens  in  the  Commonwealth,  and  no 
others  could  go  there  except  hy  a  cheat,  and  yet  the  counsel  argued 


largeh-  upon  the  topic  that  a  large  per  cent,  of  its  iumates  were 
aliens. 

It  was  cstal)Iishe(i  as  an  institution  where  all  such  of  those  who 
were  infirm  and  poor  should  have  a  house  of  refuge.  Now,  the  ques- 
tion is  before  you  whether  that  has  been  a  proper  house  of  refuge,  so 
conducted  and  carried  on  that  you  will  sustain  it  by  your  report  to 
the  Legislature,  and  say  whether  it  has  always  been  M^ell  conducted, 
and  that  there  is  no  further  improvement  wanted  in  its  management 
or  its  conduct. 

I  come  to  another  matter.  This  institution  was  under  the  charge 
of  Captain  Thomas  J.  Marsh  —  although  whj'  he  was  called  captain 
does  not  appear ;  it  certainly  was  not  for  any  service  in  any  war  that 
I  ever  heard  of — from  1858,  for  twenty-five  years,  up  to  June  last, 
and  under  the  control  of  his  family.  The  first  years,  from  1858  to 
1872,  while  there  were  some  complaints,  yet  there  were  no  actual 
official  complaints,  but  in  1873  the  Board  of  State  Charities,  whose 
place  is  now  held  by  the  State  Board  of  Health,  Lunacy  and  Charity, 
made  very  grave  official  complaints  to  Governor  Washburn,  of  which 
I  may  speak  more  at  length  hereafter,  but  no  investigation  was  made. 
They  renewed  that  complaint  to  Governor  Talbot,  whose  home  was 
within  a  half  dozen  miles  of  this  institution.*  No  investigation  fol- 
lowed by  him,  although  those  complaints  included  licentiousness  of 
the  assistant  superintendent,  killing  of  inmates  by  his  sister,  stealing 
property  of  the  State  by  his  mother,  abuse  of  insane  and  other 
patients,  and  mismanagement  of  the  almshouse  in  several  particulars 
therein  set  forth,  as  appears  on  the  record.  The  Board  renewed  their 
complaint  in  187G  to  Governor  Rice.  From  that  no  investigation  fol- 
lowed. He  tells  you  that  he  went  up  to  Tewksbury,  but  he  did  not 
visit  thte  almshouse  to  investigate  these  chai-ges  of  crime  and  wix>ng,  but 
oul}'  went  up  to  look  at  the  institution  ;  and  he  was  careful  to  say  that 
he  found  that  the  pots,  pans,  and  glasses,  and  the  crockery-ware  were 
all  clean,  and  that  they  had  clean  dish-cloths,  and  he  came  away.  Is 
not  that  exactly  what  he  testified  to  3'ou  ?  But  he  never  asked  a  word 
about  those  wrongs.  After  he  came  away  he  sent  up  these  very  grave 
charges,  made  by  the  Board  of  Charities  to  him,  to  the  Board  of 

*  "  Voted,  That  a  committee,  consisting  of  the  Chairman,  Dr.  Allen,  and  Mr. 
Donnelly,  be  instructed  to  prepare  a  draft  of  a  communication,  with  recommen- 
dations, concerning  the  State  Almshouse,  addressed  to  the  Governor,  and  submit 
the  same  at  the  next  meeting  of  the  Board ;  and  that  the  report  of  the  Executive 
Committee,  prepared  by  the  Chairman,  be  submitted  to  that  committee : 

"  Voted,  That  the  Board  ask  His  Excellency  the  Governor  carefully  to  con- 
sider whether  the  administration  of  the  State  Almshouse  ought  not  to  be  changed  • 

"  Voted,  That  in  communicating  the  above  vote  to  the  Governor,  he  be  in- 
formed that  the  Board  js  preparing  a  statement  covering  tixe  whole  subject, 
which  it  will  hereafter  present  to  Hia  Excelkucy." 


Trustees  of  the  almshouse  itself,  who  were  themselves  jit  fault,  to 
investigate.  The  record  shows  that  the  Trustees  investigated 
them  all  in  one  day,  b}'  asking  the  accused  parties  if  they  were 
guilt}-,  and  the}'  said  they  were  not,  and  the  Trustees  did  not  ask 
anybod}'  else  about  the  matter,  and  thereupon  reported  the  charges 
not  true.  Meanwhile  certain  specific  charges,  not  amounting  to  a 
very  great  deal,  not  of  the  State  Board  of  Charities  at  all,  but  of  Mr. 
Sanborn,  its  secretary,  were  brought  before  the  Legislature  in  the 
winter  of  187G,  and  they  were  heard.  I  said  they  did  not  amount  to 
much,  because  they  were  substantiall}'"  that  the  ventilation  was  not 
good,  and  that  the  cleanliness  was  not  very  good,  and  that  one  man, 
an  attendant  at  the  institution,  of  low  grade,  had  got  some  pauper 
with  child.  Those  were  investigated,  and  the  committee  and  Mr. 
Sanborn  got  into  such  a  row  over  that  investigation  that  the  Sergeant- 
at-arms  was  called  to  part  them.  But  no  special  result  came  from 
that  investigation.  There  were  three  reports  b}'  that  legislative  com- 
mittee, each  wholly  inconclusive.     Sanborn  made  the  charges. 

From  nothing,  nothing  comes.  Complaints  multiplied.  Things 
were  going  wrong,  or  were  supposed  to  be  going  wrong,  and  it  was 
found  all  over  the  State  that  there  was  an  imwillingness  on  the  part 
of  paupers  to  go  to  Tewksbury.  The  grand  jury  of  Suffolk  County 
undertook  to  investigate  one  branch  of  its  conduct,  and  they  called 
before  them  Dr.  Dixwell  and  examined  him,  supposing  perhaps,  that 
because  Hansard  Medical  School  was  in  Boston  they  would  have 
some  jurisdiction  of  the  question  of  the  bodies  of  infants  being  sent 
down  there.  But  the  district  attorney  could  have  told  them  that 
Suffolk  was  not  the  county  of  jurisdiction,  and  that  Middlesex  County 
was  the  place  whei'e  tlie  investigation  should  be  had  ;  and  so  that 
investigation  came  to  nothing. 

But  here  is  tlic  important  fact  to  vv^hich  I  want  to  call  your 
attention.  Dr.  Dixwell  went  before  that  grand  jury  and  swore  pre- 
cisely as  he  did  here.  He  went  on  a  summons,  told  the  same  story, 
and  nobody  said  then  that  even  any  signs  of  insanity  or  anything 
wrong  attached  to  him  at  that  time  —  not  even  queerness  of  dress. 
His  testimony  was  published  in  the  newspapers  of  that  day  and 
never  denied. 

The  next  thing  that  happened  was  that,  in  the  course  of  certain 
campaign  speeches,  the  question  of  the  administration  of  this  alms- 
house came  into  notice,  and  very  many  things  were  said  on  the  one 
side  and  on  the  other  in  regard  to  its  conduct.  No  investigation 
followed  in  the  Legislature  or  by  the  Governor  during  the  three 
following  years.  In  the  meantime  the  expenditures  of  the  alms- 
house, as  the  records  show,  were  running  up  year  by  year. 

When,  in  1883,  the  Governor  of  the  Commonwealth  delivered  his 


inangnral  address  he  stated  these  scandals  taken  fiora  the  records, 
and  in  order  that  he  niiglit  not  go  too  far  he  said :  ' '  Has  not  this 
testimony  been  before  the  grand  jury  and  not  denied?"  That 
address  was  delivered  on  the  4th  of  January.  You  were  told  here 
by  counsel  that  an  indignant  people  at  once  arose  and  demanded 
an  investigation  of  the  statements  therein.  'The  way  investigations 
are  usually  demanded  by  an  indignant  people  is  b}-  petition,  asking 
for  them.  He*  says  the  Commonwealth  was  slaijdered,  and  the 
indignant  people  rose  up,  and  you  had  to  investigate.  That  is 
what  he  told  you  this  morning.  Is  there  any  petition  of  that  sort 
on  your  files?  If  so,  I  have  not  seen  it  or  known  of  it.  The 
indignant  peo^jle  have  kept  their  indignation  to  themselves  in  that 
regard  with  a  great  deal  of  patience  so  far  as  anything  on  30ur 
records  is  concerned.  No  single  petition  was  filed  for  this  purpose. 
The  dominant  party  in  the  Legislature  passed  an  order  for  this 
investigation  ton  the  7th  of  February,  nobody  asking  them  so  to  do 
who  could  be  called  people.  For  some  reasons  — I  must  suppose 
good  ones  —  the  Investigation  was  put  off  and  nothing  done  about  it 
until  the  2C)th  or  27th  of  March,  almost  three  months  after  what  the 
counsel  is  pleased  to  term  "  the  charges"  were  made. 

The  first  thing  I  heard  of  the  investigation  was  at  that  time  when 
a  portion  of  your  committee  called  upon  me  iiji  the  executive  office 
and  askecUme  if  I  would  appear  before  the  legislative  committee  and 
})nt  in  such  evidence  as  I  had  in  relation  to  the  almshouse,  and  that 
appears  upon  j'our  records,  I  suppose,  at  least  it  ought  so  to  do.  I 
replied  that  I  did  not  know  am*  precedent  for  so  doing.  I  doubted 
whether  I  ought,  but  that  I  would  examine  the  precedents  and  look 
the  thing  over  and  send  you  a  written  communication,  telling  you  my 
detemiination.  And  at  the  earliest  convenient  moment  I  sent  the 
committee  a  communication,  in  which  I  said:  "I  have  come  to  the 
conclusion,  in  answer  to  your  invitation,  to  come  before  you  and 
put  in  such  evidence  as  I  have  in  the  investigation,  and  I  wish  3-011 
(vould  send  me  some  blank  subpoenas  for  witnesses."  The  next  day, 
Mr.  Chairman,  a  large  delegation  of  your  committee  came  filing 
(Uto  my  office.  After  the  proper  salutations  the  chairman  said  in 
substance :  "  You  misunderstood  us,  Governor.  We  did  not  invite 
you  to  come  before  us  and  put  in  evidence."  I  then  said,  somewhat 
irreverently,  in  substance,  because  I  am  a  little  quick  sometimes : 
"  Then  what  were  you  here  at  all  for  the  other  day?  If  you  didn't 
want  me  what  did  you  come  to  me  for?"  I  then  said  :  "  Don't  let's 
have  any  mistake  about  this"  —  and  I  had  there  present  a  stenogra- 
plier  and  one  of  the  highest  officers  of  the  government  as  a  witness  — 
"  if  you  want  me  to  come  say  so,  and  I  will  come.  If  you  don't 
want  me,  say  so,  and  I  won't ;  but  I  give  you  notice,  if  you  inves- 


6 

tigate  without  me,  I  will  rake  after  the  cart,  and  that  means  gathering 
up  all  the  stray  straws."  And  the  committee  concluded  they  wanted 
me,  and  here  I  am. 

I  mean  to  leave  no  room  for- any  man  to  say  I  am  here  voluntarily, 
and  that  I  wanted  this  investigation  to  be  had.  I  neither  sought  it 
nor  shunned  it.  I  did  what  I  deemed  ray  duty  to  my  God,  my 
conscience,  and  the  people  of  the  Commonwealth.  Thus  we  came 
together  and  began  to  investigate,  and  we  have  investigated  as  well 
as  we  could,  laboring  under  difficulties,  for  several  months. 

Will  you  allow  me  to  say  here,  Mr.  Chairman,  it  is  not  ni}^  fault 
the  investigation  did  not  begin  sooner.  If  you  had  begun  as  soon  as 
you  were  appointed,  then  we  should  have  had  cooler  weather  to  finish 
the  investigation  in  than  we  have  now,  even  if  we  were  up  at  the 
top  of  the  little  hillocks  of  Haverhill,  where  cool  air  blows. 

There  is  one  thing  I  have  a  right  to  say  to  the  committee  and  say 
for  them.  They  have  worked  as  a  committee  with  unexampled  dili- 
gence. To  that  I  bear  my  full  testiraou}-.  Now  and  then  a  man 
was  absent  on  the  one  side  or  the  other,  but  always  a  qiiorum  within 
ten  minutes  of  the  time,  devoting  all  the  time  they  could  to  it,  and  I 
giving  all  the  time  I  could  to  it.  So  much.  I  can  say  and  ought  to 
suy. 

AVc  have  now  reached  the  main  question :  What  has  been  the 
administration  of  this  State  almshouse  ?  Having  got  through  with 
the  arguments  that  were  addressed  for  a  half  hour  this  morning  to 
your  ],yrejudices,  by  the  counsel,  let  us  come  to  the  work  in  hand. 

The  administration  of  the  institution  for  a  quarter  of  a  century 
has  been  wrong  in  principle,  because  this  institution  was  put  in 
charge  of  one  family  during  this  whole  time,  sometimes  having  offi- 
cers to  the  mimber  of  seven,  —  father,  mother,,  aunt,  children,  and 
grand-children.  As  fast  as  one  of  the  Marshes  got  old  enough  to 
chip  the  shell  it  came  into  this  administration  as  an  officer.  Now, 
nothing  in  the  world  can  be  right  under  such  administration.  The 
family  —  and  I  am  not  now  speaking  of  the  Marsh  family  solely, 
because  it  is  human  nature  —  became  a  clique  within  themselves. 
They  protect  each  other,  and  turn  out  everybody  who  makes  a  com- 
plaint as  to  what  is  done,  however  good  the  complaints  and  com- 
plainants niaj-  be.  That  principle  of  administration  would  ruin  any 
institution. 

There  is  another  thing  wrong  about  it.  All  the  trustees,  so  far 
as  we  know  of  them,  except  the  two  estimable  ladies  of  whom  we 
liave  neither  heard  nor  seen  anything,  were  interested  in  the  pecula- 
tions arising  out  of  the  funds,  so  as  to  lose  all  power  of  control  over 
the  administrative  officers.  Spaulding,  one  of  the  trustees,  was, 
away  back  in  April,  accused  hero  by  his  clergyman  of  having  said  he 


would  not  give  the  time  to  the  care  of  the  ahnshouse  except  that  he 
made  uiouey  enough  out  of  its  supply  contracts  to  pa}-  him  for  his 
time. 

Now,  Spaulding  is  within  twenty-six  miles  of  here,  in  full  health 
and  strength.  Why  could  we  not  look  into  his  face.  I  certiiiuly 
would  not  call  such  a  rascal  as  he  was  sworn  to  be  for  a  witness. 
If  he  is  not  the  plundering  rascal  that  his  clergj-man  said  he  told  him 
he  was,  why  has  he  not  been  here  to  defend  himself  ? 

Again,  Mr.  Nourse,  another  trustee,  was  the  purchasing  agent  of 
the  Lowell  Railroad,  and  he  was  the  man  to  make  all  the  purchases 
of  coal  as  committeeman ;  and  all  that  coal,  although  there  was  a 
competing  road,  the  Boston  &  Maine,  went  over  the  Lowell  road. 
Perhaps  his  place  as  purcliasing  agent  depended  upon  his  doing  that 
service  to  liis  road.  He  never  went  near  the  Boston  &  Maine  Rail- 
road all  these  Acars  —  over  twenty  years  —  to  ask  for  any  competing 
rates  for  the  coal.  Now,  then,  it  is  a  little  matter,  but  "  straws 
show  which  way  the  wind  blows  "  ;  Mr.  Nourse,  for  sixteen  years, 
upon  his  own  testimon}-,  has  been  furnished  with  chickens  from  tho 
institution.  It  is  a  very  small  matter,  and  if  he  had  come  here  be- 
fore the  committee,  and,  in  conscious  innocence,  said,  "  Yes,  every 
fail  Mr.  ]Marsh  sent  around  a  few  chickens  as  a  matter  of  courtesy', 
and  I  ate  them,  and  thought  I  was  doing  right,"  nobody  would  have 
a  right  to  say  one  word.  I  should  know  nothiug  to  be  said  to  that ; 
that  they  were  the  minimis,  the  small  matters  the  law  don't  look 
after.  But  after  this  investigation  was  ordered,  and  before  it  took 
place,  a  month  afkn-  30U  were  appointed,  on  the  7th  of  March,  he. 
went  to  Charles  B.  Marsh  and  paid  $20  for  those  chickens  that  he  had, 
been  eating  during  sixteen  years,  although  he  knew  neither  the  num- 
ber nor  weight  of  them.  He  was  under  no  legal  obligation  to  do  it, 
because  it  had  outlawed ;  but  the  transaction  shows  where  the  coni- 
science  gnawed.  He  felt  that  he  was  guilty,  and,  while  there  was 
no  gi'eat  wrong  about  it,  he  tried  to  fix  up  the  matter  so  he  could 
show  he  paid  for  all  he  had.  He  had  them  ;  he  never  paid  for  them, 
and  never  would  have  paid  lor  them,  as  you  all  know,  if  it  had.  not 
been  for  the  investigation  of  this'  committee.  Charles  Marsh  took  a 
leaf  out  from  Nourse's  book.  He  had  been  feeding  his  chickens 
upon  the  Commonwealth's  meal,  and  selling  the  eggs  to  the  alms- 
house, but  he  also  paid  for  the  meal  after  this  in^qestigation  had 
begun. 

The  other  trustee,  Mr.  Eliott,  was  interested  in  the  milk  contract, 
and  would  not  let  the  contract  go  to  the  lowest  bidder.  He  does  not 
appear  here,  although  he  is  alive  and  well,  or  was,  at  least,  the  lajs.t 
time  I  heard  of  him,  and  lives  within  five  miles  of  the  almshouse.. 

Such  admiui^ration  is  wroqg  in  prindpla,  and  the  trustees  oil- 


pable,  fis  trustees  receiving  favors  can  exert  no  moral  force  over  the 
officers. 

Now,  Mr.  Eliott  has  been  in  and  over  that  institution  every  month 
in  every  year  for  twenty'  3-ears.  He  knows  more  about  it  than  any- 
body else.  It  is  in  evidence  that  he  has  investigated  these  cases  of 
cruelty  and  false  imprisonment  of  four  insane  people.  Why  is  he 
not  here  as  a  witness  for  the  Marshes  ?  Because  he  could  not  stand 
an  iuA^estigation  into  his  conduct  and  his  contracts.* 

There  has  been  a  continual  suppression  of  evidence  on  the  other 
side.  "We  were  told  by  their  counsel  in  the  most  bellowing  enuncia- 
tion that  they  were  going  to  turn  this  institution  inside  out  for  our 
inspection.     Yes,  but  they  have  only  shown  us  the  outside  of  it. 

Such  has  been  tlie  course  of  administration,  —  peculation  and 
nepotism  to  the  last  degi'ee. 

Now,  a  moment  before  we  go  into  the  administration  of  Thomas 
J.  Marsh,  of  whom  certain  classes  of  newspapers  have  been  singing 
paeans  of  glory ;  let  us  find  out  who  and  what  he  is. 

Mr.  Thomas  J.  IMarsh  was  a  shoemaker  in  Exeter,  in  1827,  when 
I  was  at  school  there.  He  went  from  there  to  Lynn,  and  engaged 
in  the  shoe  business.  He  was  a  very  respectable  shoemaker,  I 
guess,  and  he  ought  to  have  stuck  to  the  business, — although  he 
failed  in  it.  Next  we  hear  of  him  as  a  clerk  in  a  grocery  store.  He 
quit  that  to  carry  on  a  little  business  for  himself.     He  broke  down  in 


*  "  Mr.  Sanborn  gave  his  opinion  of  these  trustees,  in  a  letter  written  to  Gor- 
"  emor  Rice,  in  1878,  as  follows :  "  Much  as  I  might  value  an  appointment  from  your 
"  Excellency  (such  as  I  first  received  from  our  lamented  friend  Governor  Andrew, 
"and  afterwards  from  Governors  Bullock  and  Claflin),  I  could  not  accept  it  if 
"  Messrs.  Francis  H.  Nourse  and  George  P.  Eliot  should  continue  to  hold  office  as 
"  inspectors  of  the  State  almshouse  at  Tewksbury.  These  persons,  by  their  own 
"admission,  have  been  guilty  of  long-continued  neglect  of  duty  and  transgres.sion 
"  of  the  by-laws  of  their  almshouse,  in  consequence  of  which,  as  I  believe,  several 
"  helpless  women,  doubly  unfortunate  by  reason  of  poverty  and  insanity,  have 
"  suffered  illegal  imprisonment  or  death. 

Tliird.  "  That  the  mortality  among  the  insane  women,  in  a  special  hospital 
"  for  such  patients  at  Tewksbury,  was  excessive ^nd  shocking  during  the  month  of 
"May,  1875,  and  tlie  early  part  of  June ;  that  the  responsibility  for  this  mortality 
"  rests  with  Miss  Helen  M.  Marsh,  theo  and  now  assistant-physician  at  the  State 
"  almshouse,  of  wliich  her  father  is  superintendent  and  her  brother  the  assistant- 
"  superintendent ;  that  this  young  woman  hatl  no  such  acquaintance  with  disease 
"and  insanity,  or  with  the  proper  treatment  thereof,  as  would  qualify  her  for  such 
"  a  responsible  position ;  that  there  was  no  epidemic  or  other  unusual  cause  of 
"  death  at  that  time ;  and  that,  as  soon  as  the  hospital  in  question  was  put  in  the 
"  direct  charge  of  the  physician  to  tlie  sane  inmates,  Dr.  J.  D.  Nichols,  the  mortality 
"instantly  diminished;  so  that  there  were  fewer  deaths  in  four  months  following 
"  the  15th  of  June,  1875,  than  in  the  thirty-five  or  thirty-six  days  between  May  5 
•"  and  June  8,  1875." 


that.  He  got  appointed  in  the  post-ofl3ce,  and  he  quit  that.  Then 
he  got  a  place  in  the  custom-house.  He  quit  that.  I  am  speaking 
by  the  record.  Then  he  got  elected,  in  the  spasm  of  virtue  called 
know-nothiugism,  by  the  Know-Nothing  party,  as  treasurer  of  the 
Commonwealth.  "What  a  man  to  pick  out  for  treasurer  of  this 
Commonwealth !  Heretofore,  all  our  treasurers,  to  the  honor  of  the 
Commonwealth  be  it  said,  have  held  their  office  for  the  full  five  years 
that  the  Constitution  permitted,  except  wliere  thei'e  has  been  a  change 
of  part^- ;  but,  for  some  reason,  Mr.  Marsh  was  too  great  a  load  for 
the  Know-Xothing  party  even  to  cany,  —  and  they  carried  some  awful 
ones,  —  but  he  was  dropped  the  first  3"ear.  He  then  undertook  a  small 
shoe  business  down  at  the  West  End,  and  failed  in  that.  He  then 
went  to  AValtham,  and  failed  in  business  there  ;  but  he  was  lucky 
enough  to  be  a  townsman  of  Major-General  Banks,  who  had  been  a 
Know-Nothing  with  him,  and  he  appointed  him  to  this  institution  in 
place  of  Mr.  Meserve.  Up  to  that  time  no  troubles  were  heard  of  in 
this  institution.  For  the  first  two  or  three  3'ears  after  no  trouble  was 
heard.  It  was  passably  well  conducted.  Marsh's  boys  had  not  grown 
up.  The}'  were  hi  Harvard  College,  some  of  them.  The  almshouse 
was  then  economicalh"  conducted.  It  had  as  many  inmates  in  1862 
as  it  had  last  3'ear,  and  a  few  more,  as  the  record  will  show,  —  a  little 
over  900,  —  and  that  institution  was  carried  on  that  year,  so  far  as 
everything  of  running  expenses  was  concerned,  for  $17,000  ;  $7,000 
of  that  amount  was  for  salaries,  and  $40,000  or  $41,000  only  were 
expended  for  food  and  cuiTent  expenses.  Now,  you  have  $93,000 
appropriated  for  the  expenses  of  that  institution  for  the  present 
year;  $20,000  for  salaries,  and  $73,000  for  expenses;  and  the 
counsel  tells  you  —  it  is  not  in  the  record,  and  I  am  not  responsible 
for  it — that  the  managers  have  expended  considerably  over  $40,000 
to  the  first  of  June,  and  there  fire  a  large  number  of  bills  outstanding, 
so  that  there  is  going  to  be  a  deficiency  if  he  is  right. 

Now,  let  us  follow  Mr.  Marsh  a  little  further.  He  was  a  poor 
man;  but  there  is  nothing  to  be  said  against  him  on  that  account. 
He  had  an  aged  father  and  mother  to  support  and  sustain,  and  that 
he  did  so  is  tcr  be  said  to  his  credit.  He  had  four  sons  to  maintain 
and  four  daughters,  two  of  whom  were  unfortunate  in  their  marriages 
and  came  upon  him  largely  to  be  supported,  together  with  their 
children.  He  had  81,200,  $1,500,  and  $1,800  a  year,  his  salaries  at 
different  periods.  He  sent  all  his  sons  to  school  in  Exeter,  and  three 
of  them,  as  I  remember,  were  educated  at  Harvai'd.  Exeter  is  one  of 
the  most  expensive  schools,  in  our  days,  in  New  England,  and  Har- 
vard's reputation  in  that  regard  I  need  not  speak  of,  and  he  maintained 
all  his  other  relatives  and  his  wife's  sister  beside.  K  j-ou  will  tell  me 
how  a  man  can  do  that  on  $1,800  a  year,  at  the  outside,  to  say  nothing 


10 

of  $1,200, 1  will  beg  Mr.  Marsh's  pardon,  and  if  yon  can't,  you  ought 
to  beg  mine.  Not  only  that.  He  brought  the  girls  down  here  to 
take  music  lessons,  while  they  boarded  at  the  almshouse  at  the  State's 
expense,  and  one  was  sent  to  the  Homoeopathic  College  and  so  on, 
Ngw,  that  cannot  be  done  on  his  salary.  He  has  not  taken  a  dollar 
from  the  institution,  they  sa}-.  Where  did  he  get  the  means  for  this 
large  expenditure  ?     Judge  ye  ! 

The  first  thing  I  find  convenient  to  deal  with  is  the  peculations  of 
the  officers.  The  trustees  and  their  little  pickings  and  stealings  I 
have  already  spoken  of.     Charles  B.  Marsh  a  little  also. 

There  was  as  long  ago  as  1876,  a  most  damaging  claim  gravely 
put  forward  by  the  Board  of  State  Charities  —  not  by  Mr.  Sanborn  ; 
he  was  only  the  secretary  who  wrote  the  letter.  The  Board  of  State 
Charities  therein  official!}'  stated  to  the  Governor  —  and  an  investiga- 
tion was  asked  —  that  Mrs.  Marsh  was  stealing  the  inmates  clothing. 
That  has  been  followed  from  that  day  to  this.  That  complaint  was 
never  investigated.  All  that  was  done  was,  the  trustees  asked  the 
old  gentleman  if  his  wife  did  steal,  and  he  said  she  did  not ;  and  that 
was  all !  That  very  graA-e  accusation  has  been  sworn  to  here  by 
several  witnesses  under  oath,  yet  the  defence  did  not  call  as  a  witness 
Mrs.  Marsh.  They  put  in,  however,  that  IVIrs.  Leonard  thinks  she 
has  got  all  her  faculties  and  is  a  good  housekeeper.  If  so,  she  would 
make  a  good  witness.  Why  was  she  not  brought  here?  This  is  what 
they  call  turning  this  concern  inside  out.  Seven  years  that-  charge 
has  been  against  that  old  woman,  and  no  man  has  investigated  it ; 
and  her  husband  and  her  children  with  the  odor  of  Harvard  about* 
them  have  never  called  for  an  investigation.     Isn't  it  wonderful  ? 

Now,  then,  in  the  first  place,  Mr.  Barker  came  here  and  gave  us 
testimony,  and  he  has  been  very  severely  treated.  He  said  he  used 
to  see  boxes  filled,'  containing  blankets  and  like  things,  belonging  to 
'  the  institution  ;  and  he  tells  us  he  saw  them  one  night  taken  away. 
Oh  !  the}'  say.  Mr.  Barker  is  not  a  reliable  man?  He  told  his  wife 
about  it  at  the  time,  and  she  comes  here  and  swears  to  it. 

The  chairman.  —  You  mean  Mr.  Dudley,  Governor. 
•  Governor  Butler. — I  mean  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Barker,. and  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Dudley,  too.  Mr.  Dudley,  who  is  called  "Ananias  Dudley" 
here.  I  am  sorry  the  counsel  is  not  more  familiar  with  tlie  Scrip- 
tures. Let  me  remind  him  that  Ananias  was  not  struck  dead  by  the 
Lord  for  telling  what  w^s  not  true,  but  for  keeping  back  a'  part  of 
the  truth.  I  regret  the  .counsel  is  not  better  up  in  the  Scri[)tures. 
Indeed  I  could  recommend  two  things  to  him :  a  little  more  Scripture 
and  a  little  more  law. 

Mr.  Barker  said  he  saw  these  things,  and  he  told  his  wife.      Who 
is  he  ?    He  went  away  from  there  with  a  strong  recommendation,  in 


11 

his  pockot  from  them  —  on  his  own  account,  and  went  down  to  Salem, 
and  has  been  at  the  head  of  the  Salem  almshouse  ever  since,  being 
unaniinoush'  re-elected  every  3'ear,  and  is  there  now.  Don't  you  sup- 
pose the  overseers  of  the  poor  there  know  who  he  is  ?  Has  there  been 
one  word  brought  here  against  him?  Has  Mr.  Brown's  detective, 
Sargent,  found  any  runt  fi'om  the  Harvard  Medical  School  to  swear 
against  his  reputation  for  truth  and  veracity?  None.  -Now,  let  us 
take  Mr.  Dudle}'.  Who  is  he?  Mr.  Dudley  and  his  wife  went  from 
Tewksbur^'  to  the  insane  hospital  at  Danvers  uix)n  the  recommenda- 
tion of  the  Marshes,  or  the  resident  physidan,  I  don't  care  wliich  — 
the  recommendation  of  Tewksbury,  and  there  he  and  his  wife  have 
remained  ever  since,  and  remain  now  ;  and  if  any  attempt  had  been 
made  to  discredit  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Dudley  by  anybody  or  in  any  manner 
except  b}'  the  rough  side  of  a  lawyer's  tongue,  I  should  have  bi'ought 
everybody  from  that  institution  to  testif}'  as  to  what  sort  of  people 
they  are.  But  ni}'^  brother  has  furnished  me  with  a  witness  in  Mrs. 
Leonard.  She  says,  "  I  have  known  ]\Ir.  and  Mrs.  Dudley  for  ten 
years.     I  respect  them,  and  should  believe  their  statements." 

This  is  the  acute  person  we  have  heard  of,  the  ablest  person  on 
the  Board  of  Health,  Lunacy  and  Charity. 

INIr.  Brown.  —  AVhat  is  the  date  of  that  ? 

Governor  Butler.  —  i^pril  19.  You  will  find  it  in  the  Daily  Adver- 
tiser, which  you  lielieve  in  and  I  don't. 

Here  are  these  respectable  people  of  whom  nothing  can  be  sai<l  — 
except  that  they  were  once  at  Tewksbury  —  in  any  wa}-  or  form, 
swearing  to  the  facts  that  I  have  told  yon ;  and  they  both  swear  — 
Barker  and  Dudley  —  that  they  saw  ti'unk  after  trunk  and  box  after 
box  go  away  to  Exeter,  where  the  Atwoods  (Marsh's  daughter  and 
granddaughters)  lived,  filled  in  some  cases  with  property  that  be- 
longed to  the  institution. 

Charles  H.  Dudley  testified  as  follows  [Rec,  p.  60]  :  I  saw  a 
woman  opening  trunks,  taking  out  articles  of  clothing,  female  apparel, 
laying  them  down  in  different  piles,  until  I  saw  three  or  four  trunks 
opened.  Piles  were  laid  down  in  one  place  and  piles  in  another ; 
then  piles  packed  into  the  trunk,  and  the  other  piles  left  outside.  I 
went  back  with  the  idea  to  satisfy  myself  what  was  going  on.  I  saw 
that  woman  come  out,  hobble  up  the  steps  and  go  into  the  centre 
building.     I  supposed  at  the  time  it  was  all  right. 

[Rec,  p.  79.] 

Q.    Who  was  it? 

A.    That  was  Captain  Marsh's  wife.     • 

Q.    The  matron?       --  ■ 

A.    The  matron. 

Governor  Butler.  —  Who  is  now  a  little  over  80. 

The  witness.  —  I  had  supposed  that  that  was  all  right.  I  had  no 
particular  suspicion  until  a  few  days  after  that,  or  a  siiort  time  after 


12 

that,  when  I  was  informed  by  the  housekeeper,  who  was  then  a  Mrs. 
Pope,  that  she  had  seen  the  same.  I  asked  her  what  she  supposed 
was  done  with  the  clothing  that  was  removed  from  those  trunks. 
"Wiiy,"slie  said: 

Governor  Butler.  —  He  was  going  to  tell,  hut  Mr.  Brown  inter- 
rupted him.  "•  I  went  and  got  a  screw-driver -^  I  saw  the  tops  of 
the  boxes  were  put  on  with  screws,  quite  heavily  screwed  down  — 
and  took  the  covers,  or  part  of  the  covers,  off  the  boxes,  and  I  found 
that  they  contained  different  articles  of  dry  goods,  such  as  sheeting, 
bed-sj^reads,  blankets,  soft  wool  blankets,  curtains,  pillows,  and 
pieces  of  silk ;  also  pieces  of  carpets,  either  Brussels  or  imitation  of 
Brussels  carpets.  ThisVas  as  near  as  I  found  out  of  what  the  con- 
tents were,  and  I  took  out  several  pieces  and  satisfied  nrjself  what 
they  were. 

Then  he  sa3^s  he  saw  a  wagon  backed  up  to  the  door  and  saw  the 
.boxes  rolled  into  it  by  two  men. 

Then  he  says,  further,  that  when  he  came  there  and  asked  Captain 
Marsh  what  his  duty  was  as  night  watchman,  he  answered  that  it  was 
"  not  to  see  too  much."  Captain  Marsh  was  accustomed  to  give  that 
sort  of  direction,  for  one  of  the  old  Board  of  Inspectors  swore  that 
when  first  appointed  he  did  not  know  what  his  duty  was.  As  he  was 
a  new  man,  lie  went-  up  and  asked  Captain  Marsh  A^^'hat  his  duties 
were,  and  he  said  "  to  come  here  once  a  mouth  and  get  a  good  din- 
ner and  go  away,"  and  Captain  Marsh  has  never  contradicted  that, 
and  he  has  been  upon  the  stand.  Dudley  watched  the  wagon  and 
found  that  it  went  to  Fay's  station,  which  is  the  station  at  which  j'oii 
take  the  train  for  Exeter.  * 

"  One  of  the  Davis  boj's  came  there  frequently  and  stayed  a  long 
time.  Always  carried  a  trunk  liomQ  with  him,  and  failed  to  bring 
one  when  he  came.  It  used  to  be  as  large  a  one  as  they  could  get." 
[Rec,  p.  71.] 

AVitness  had  seen  Mrs.  Marsh  at  night  time  in  trunk-room  taking 
away  bundles  of  female  apparel. 

1  agree,  as  matron,  she  had  a  right  to  be  everywhere  she  liked 
about  the  premises ;  but  after  nine  o'clock  at  night  was  not  a  good 
time  for  an  old  woman  to  be  down  in  the  basement  looking  into 
trunks.  If  you  think  it  was,  of  course  you  will  report  that  that  was 
a  portion  of  her  duty. 

Mrs.  Pope,  the  housekeeper,  told  Dudley  she  had  seen  the  same 
thing  [Rec,  p.  79],  and  against  her  not  a  word  has  been  said,  except 
by  Mr.  Brown.  And  when  a  man  calls  everybod}'  a  liar,  he  is  like 
the  man  who  said  that  every  man  in  the  town  was  drunk,  for  they 
all  seemed  to  him  to  stagger. 

She  tesvtiiies  that  she  did  sewing  for  Mrs.  Marsh — made  over 
dresses  whicli  Mrs.  Marsh  had  from  the  baggage-room  where  the  in- 
mates' trunks  were  stored  ;  that  the  dresses  were  silk ;  that  she  saw 
one  on  one  of  the  Davis  girls  (one  of  Captain  Marsh's  grandchildren)  ; 
saw  Mrs.  Marsh  frequentfy  overhauling  trunks  of  patients,  and  saw 
•  paupers  making  rugs  from  the  old  dresses^f  the  inmates,  and  that 
the  rugs  were  not  used  in  the  almshouse.     [Rec.,  p.  403.] 

Barker  reported  that  the  inmates  in  the  insane  building  were  not 
properly  clothed,  and  liad  not  sufficient  clothing.      [Rec,  p.  449.] 

Catharine  Morau,  a  dealer  in  second-hand  clothing,  testified  that 


iiiiiii!iiiiii!iiifi^^ 


HARVARD  MEDICAL  SCHOOL. 


Geo.  Skinner  testified:  Visited  the  Harvard  Medical  School  by  invitation  of 
the  janitor ;  saw  the  tables  full  of  dead  bodies ;  also  saw  a  dozen  or  twenty 
bodies  in  the  dsad  house  ;  they  were  piled  up  like  cord-wood  on  the  floor.  [See 
Record,  page  3,017.] 


13 

she  bought  of  the  Marshes  large  quantities  of  dresses  and  undercloth- 
ing, and  a  poor  musician's  fiddle.  [Rec.,^  pp.  996,  7.]  Also  that 
she  bought  of  the  Atwoods  in  Exeter,  dresses,  shawls,  cloaks,  under- 
clothing, stockings,  and  that  she  bought  of  the  Atwoods  and  Davises 
clothing  as  often  as  a  dozen  times,  and  that  they  were  good  dresses. 
[Rec,  p.  1001.] 

Mary  E,  Walker  testified  that  she  had  bought  of  the  Marshes,  the 
Davises,  tlie  Atwoods,  and  Mk-s.  Dr.  Putney,  quantities  of  second- 
hand dresses,  underclothing,  and  the  like.     [Rec,  pp.  110-15.] 

Mrs.  Dr.  Putney  was  one  of  Captain  Marsh's  grandchildren,  and 
after  she  got  married  and  moved  down  to  Reading,  they  had  a  rendez- 
vous down  there,  and  witness  bought  all  the  clothing  there  that  she 
could  carrj'  away. 

Mrs.  Dudley  testified  as  follows  upon  this  point :  — 

Q.  Now,  did  you  ever  see  any  thing  about  taking  clothes  away 
from  the  trunks  or  the  trunk-room  ? 

A.  When  we  were  on  the  night-watch  we  noticed  that  there  was 
a  large  room  filled  with  trunks  and  clothing  on  hooks  ;  when  we  went 
away  there  were  but  very  few  trunks  there  and  very  little  clothing  ;  I 
don't  know  what  became  of  it. 

Q.    Did  3-ou  ever  see  anybody  carrying  it  away? 

A.  I  saw  old  lady  Marsh  one  time  coming  up  out  of  the  trunk- 
room  with  an  armful  of  clothing. 

Q.    What  was  it?' 

A.    I  did  not  examine  it.     It  looked  like  dresses  and  shawls. 

Q.  Do  you  know  anything  about  taking  boxes  to  the  railway  sta- 
tion? 

A.    No,  sir ;  I  do  not ;  I  heard  of  it,  but  I  did  not  see  it. 

That  was  further  confirmed  by  Mrs.  Pope. 

Mrs.  Mina  A.  Davis,  a  night  nurse  at  the  almshouse  in  1878  and 
1879,  testified  that  complaint  on  the  part  of  inmates  about  loss  of 
clothing  was  frequent  and  common,  The  complaints  were  such  as 
this  :  "  Mrs.  Davis,  look  at  this  dress  !  I  put  a  nice  dress  into  that 
baggage-room.  Now  look  at  this."  And  the  same  complaints  were 
made  in  regard  to  shawls,  hats,  and  other  articles  of  apparel.  [Rec, 
p.  272.] 

Wilham  Driscoll,  who  was  nine  years  at  Tewksbury,  testified  that 
he  saw  Hugh  McDermott  and  other  inmates  peddling  stockings, 
shoes,  pants,  and  underclothing  which  were  said  to  have  been  fur- 
nished them  bv  French  Joe,  who  was  to  divide  profits.  This  was  in 
1881.     [Rec.,''p.  253.] 

Agnes  Calder  testified  that  there  was  a  general  complaint  of 
inmates  about  the  loss  of  dresses  and  other  clothing  from  their 
trunks,  and  that  frequently  the  clothing  of  the  inmates  admitted  to 
the  institution  would  be  gone.     [Rec,  p.  283.] 

Now,  a  w^ord  about  Miss  Calder  right  here.  She  gave  as  her  ref- 
erence, yesterday,  that  she  had  been  for  seventeen  years  a  member 
of  the  Tremont  Temple  Church,  and  an  attendant  upon  its  Sabbath 
school ;  and  anybody  might  go  there  and  inquire  concerning  her. 
She  gave  that  same  reference  nearly  four  months  ago,  and  Moses 
Sargent  even  could  not  find  out  anything  against  her —  and  what  he 
can't  nose  out  is  not  worth  attefnpting  to  find  out. 

Now,  Joseph  Palmer,  the  man  who  says  he  checked  the  baggage, 
or  had  the  baggage  checked,  testified  as  follovrs  :  — 


14 

Q.  And  when  they  came  they  would  give  yon  the  check,  and  you 
would  go  and  get  the  baggage  ? 

A.    Yes,  sir. 

Q.  This  corning  and  going  was  always  to  and  from  Tewksbury 
substantiallj-  ? 

A.   Yes,  sir.     I  believe  I  didn't  check  any  baggage  anywhere  else. 

Now,  he  testifies,  to  make  a  long  story  short,  that  this  happened 
every  week.  The}'  went  away  from  Exeter  empty  and  they  came 
back  with  heavy  trunks.  They  got  the  depositions  of  two  men 
who  had  quarrelled  with  Palmer  to  swear  they  wouldn't  believe  him 
under  oath,  but  I  thought  it  was  not  worth  while  to  trouble  the  com- 
mittee with  any  witnesses  to  rebut  their  testimony,  especially  as  the 
Legislature  were  kind  enough  to  limit  my  time  so  that  I  couldn't  get 
all  my  witnesses  by  some  fifteen  before  the  committee.^ 

Are  all  these  witnesses  to  be  whistled  down  the  wind,  when  they 
don't  briug  a  single  Marsh  here  to  say  it  isn't  so  ?  Add  to  this  the 
fact  that  when  Mrs.  Putney,  one  of  the  grandchildren,  got  married 
and  went  down  to  Reading  to  live,  they  sent  her  a  box  weighing  400 
pounds  (as  shown  by  the  freight  book  of  the  railroad) ,  which  the}' 
labelled  "  baby  crib."  They  must  have  supposed  she  would  have  a 
verj'  large  baby.  I  call  these  facts  specially  to  your  attention  that 
you  may  not  try  to  get  over  this  testimon}-  by  sliding  over  it. 

I  come  to  something  more  important.  I  desii-e  to  call  your  atten- 
tion to  the  manner  of  keeping  the  accounts  of  this  State  institution. 
The  books  that  were  produced  here  were  the  most  beautiful  looking 
books  I  ever  saw  in  my  life.  They  were  all  as  clean  as  that  (exhib- 
iting book) .  Books  that  Charles  B.  Marsh  swears  had  been  used  for 
years  for  daj'-books,  journals,  and  ledgers,  without  a  blotch,  blot,  or 
erasure,  and  thei'e  is  not  one  to  be  found  in  them  anywhere.  These 
were  copies.  But  when  you  come  to  the  cash-book,  where  the  in- 
mates' cash  was  kept,  Charles  Marsh  swears  that  his  method  of  keep- 
ing that  book  was  by  erasures.  That  is,  when  the  ifrmate  came  ia 
and  had  so  much  monej',  that  amount  was  put  down  to  his  credit ;  and 
when  the  same  man  had  some  more  sent  to  him  by  his  friends,  Charles 
scratched  out  the  first  amount,  added  the  two  together,  and  put  down 
the  sum  where  he  had  erased  the  original  amount.  And  if  he  let  the 
pauper  have  any  money,  he  deducted  that  amount  from  that  standing 
to  his  credit,  erased  the  first  etitry,  and  then  put  the  balance  down 
over  that  erasure.  Now,  gentlemen,  have  I  misstated  this  one  hair? 
That  was  his  sworn  method  of  keeping  that  account.  Occasionally 
he  did  it  in  another  way. 

I  have  heard  of  keeping  books  by  double  entry,  but  never  by 
erasures,  for  that  is  triple  cntr}-. 

Now,  do  you  wonder  why  I  could  not  get  all  these  books  at  first? 


RESURRECTING  DEAD  BODIES. 


John  Henry  Chase  testified:  "  I  saw  dead  bodies  taken  from  the  grave-yard 
in  the  day-time,  after  they  had  been  buried  ;  don't  know  who  took  them  ;  they 
were  taken  away  in  a  team  driven  by  a  negro."  See  Record,  page  28.  "At  one 
time  buried  a  coffin  with  a  block  of  wood  in  it,  the  body  having  been  removed." 


15 

My  expert  testified  that  he  never  saw  such  a  clean  set  of  books,  and  I 
am  sure  I  never  did.  If  they  wanted  to  fix  up  their  books  in  this  waj-, 
that  convenient  delay  of  the  committee,  from  the  7th  of  Februar}-  to  the 
last  of  March,  would  have  given  them  just  the  time  in  which  to  do  it." 
Do  not  mistake  me  !  I  don't  say  the  committee  knew  anything  about 
it.  But  they  got  word  of  the  investigation  at  Tewksbury,  so  they 
began  to  put  in  order  all  the  accounts.  Nourse  paid  up,  Charles  B. 
Marsh  paid  up,  and  the  old  man  got  the  pig  money  ready  (laughter) 
to  be  paid  back,  while  you  were  waiting.  You  were  waiting  for  good 
reasons,  and  they  were  occupying  the  time  very  industriously  in  pre- 
paring their  books  for  you. 

Now,  then,  here  is  the  inmates'  cash-book,  which  we  never  got 
until  after  four  times  asking,  and  after  Charles  had  sworn  he  had 
brought  you  all  the  books,  and  it  is  all  covered  with  erasures.  It  is 
not  clean,  as  you  see,  like  the  others.  Charles  Marsh  swore  he  had 
given  us  all  the  books,  once,  twice,  thrice.  I  kept  after  it.  "  Where 
is  that  inmates'  cash-book?"  He  sa3'S,  "That  is  a  little  memoran- 
clum  book."  I  said,  "  Bring  it!  "  At  last. I  got  it,  and  he  had  no 
time  to  fix  it.  That  looks  like  a  book  that  has  been  used.  Compare 
this  book  with  the  other  books  of  this  State  institution.  These  are 
the  books  the  Commonwealth's  accounts  are  kept  in.  This  -is  the 
book  I  got  at  last  (holding  up  the  inmates'  cash-book) ,  in  which  the 
poor  paupers'  accounts  are  kept.        ' 

I  will  now  give  you  a  history  of  the  call.  I  called  on  Charles  B. 
Marsh  for  all  the  books  that  he  kept.  Certain  books  were  brought 
in,  and  he  came  upon  the  stand  here  and  swore  that  he  had  cleaned 
out  his  safe  that  morning  of  everything.     [Rec,  p.  210.] 

This  was  the  third  call  for  books,  and  Mr.  Brown,  the  counsel  for 
the  Marshes,  said  :  — 

"  Now,  upon  the  third  call,  we  have  produced  everything  that  we 
have  at  the  institution." 

This  will  be  found  on  the  211th  page  of  the  record,  and  there  are 
2000  of  them. 

The  Chairman.  — Three  thousand  pages. 

Governor  Butler.  — Yes,  sir,  I  always  understate  my  case.  (Ap- 
plause.) 

Then  when  Charles  Marsh  was  on  the  stand  he  testified  as  follows  : 
[Rec,  p.  380.] 

Q.  Have  you  delivered  all  books  at  my  office  that  you  have  kept 
there  ? 

A.    I  have. 

He  testified  later,  in  answer  to  a  question  as  to  whether  there  is 
liny  account  of  what  the  inmates  bring  there,  as  follows :  [Rec, 
p.  384.] 


16 

That  is  put  on  a  little  book,  a  memorandum-book. 

Q.    Is  that  book  sent  to  ray  office  ? 

A.    I  don't  think  it  is. 

I  then  made  a  fourth  call  for  the  books,  and  asked  for  "  all  the 
books  of  every  description  kept  by  anybody,  man,  woman,  or  child, 
in  Tewksbury."     [Rec,  p.  397.] 

In  answer  to  this  call,  the  inmates'  cash-book  was  produced. 

Charles  Marsh,  still  later,  being  recalled,  testified  as  follows 
[Rec,  p.  821]  :  "  I  have  a  book  ;  perhaps  I  should  state  that  it  is 
kept  in  a  drawer,  which  I  will  send  to  you  if  you  want  it,  where  I 
have  taken  off  the  expenditures  for  each  month ;  it  is  no  part  of  the 
books  of  the  institution,  but  I  have  done  it  for  my  own  convenience ; 
I  have  taken  off  each  item  for  a  number  of  years,  say  from  1868  or 
18G9,  I  think." 

And  on  page  866  he  testified  as  follows  :  — 

I  have  not  kept  any  book  but  what  I  have  sent  you. 

Q.    Except  the  one  that  is  in  the  drawer  ? 

A.  That  I  consider  my  own  private  property.  I  did  not  under- 
stand that  you  wanted  it. 

Q.  I  ask  you  again,  as  I  have  asked  j'ou  before,  are  there  any 
more  books,  in  or  about  the  institution  at  Tewksbury,  or  anywhere 
else  to  3' our  knowledge,  on  which  any  account  is  kept  relative  to  the 
business  of  the  institution,  in  any  way  or  form?  I  mean  to  be  as 
broad  as  language  can  make  it. 

A.  I  don't  know.  I  think  there  are  books  made  there  by  the 
appraiser  when  he  appraises  the  property.     [Rec,  p.  867.] 

These  books  were  finally  produced ;  but  being  certain  that  there 
were  still  others  which  were  being  kept  back,  I  again  called  for  all 
the  books  Avhere  any  account  has  been  kept  about  anything  there  at 
Tewksbury.  [Rec,  p.  1016.]  This  demand  being  made,  the  chair- 
man again  called  Charles  Marsh,  who  testified  as  follows  [Rec,  p. 
1017]  :  "I  don't  know  of  any  account-book  in  the  institution  to-day  ; 
everything  that  I  know  of  in  the  shape  of  au  account  has  been 
turned  over  to  the  committee." 

And  the  committee  over  and  over  again  ordered  that  all  the  books 
should  be  produced.  And  yet,  within  the  last  few  days  of  this 
investigation,  there  was  testimony  produced  here  in  regard  to  books 
containing  the  account  of  the  cut-up  dead,  the  most  important  of  all 
matters. 

Steal,  if  3-ou  please.  Marshes  ;  steal  the  poor  inmates'  cash,  and 

keep  no  account,  or  an  erased  account  if  you  will,  but  in  Heaven's 

name  don't  steal  their  bodies  and  su^^iress  the  account !     (Api^lause.) 

Nourse  swore ;  Thomas  J.  Blarsh  admitted  he  had  the  books,  and 

then  walked  up  to  this  table,  and  looked  you  in  the  face,  and  told 


17 

you  he  would  not  give  them  to  you.     And  this  is  the  institution  you 
are  to  sustain. 

I  could  not  have  believed  it  until  this  morning,  after  I  read  the 
vote  of  the  Legislature,  —  which  I  should  not  have  dared  to  mention 
if  Mr.  Brown  had  not  dragged  it  in,  —  that  fifty-six  men  absolutely 
voted  that  there  was  no  power  in  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts  to 
get  the  books  in  which  the  accounts  of  the  State  of  Massachusetts  are 
kept  unless  they  paid  $1.50  witness  fees  and  had  the  witness  sub- 
poenaed. And  this  is  the  condition  of  the  case.  The  Legislature 
has  ordered  an  investigation  into  this  institution,  and  one  of  the 
under  officers  actually  tells  you,  do  what  you  may,  you  shall  not 
have  the  books,  and  books  showing  what  has  been  done  with  the 
Commonwealth's  dead  for  twenty-five  years,  as  they  must,  if  pi'operly 
kept,*  and  these  accounts  of  disposition  of  the  State's  dead  is 
what  I  want  to  see.  I  dare  you,  gentlemen,  to  whitewash  such 
transactions !  You  will  reckon  with  the  people  for  that,  if  it  is 
done,  and  the  man  w1k>  puts  his  name  to  it  in  my  judgment,  might 
as  well  sign  his  own  death  warrant,  for  anything  that  the  people  of 
Massachusetts  will  do  for  him  hereafter. 

A  solemn  investigation  has  been  ordered.  Your  committee  has 
ordei'ed  every  book  in  the  institution  to  l)e  given  up.  These  officers 
of  the  institution  are  here  before  aou  to  defend  themselves.  They 
have  emploj'ed  counsel,  and  the}-  are  here  consulting  him.  They 
are  right  here  in  the  room  with  the  books  of  account  of  the  dead  in 
their  pocket,  the  account  of  those  who  have  been  sold  for  monc}-  that 
they  may  be  cut  up,  after  the  service  of  God  over  their  remains  has 
been  said  by  the  holy  priest ;  and  j'ct  that  man  comes  here  and  says 
"  I  won't  give  that  account  up."  You,  feeling  that  the  dignity  of 
the  Commonwealth  has  been  confided  to  your  charge,  —  a  majority  of 
you,  —  feeling  that  the  honor  of  the  Commonwealth  is  in  your  hands, 
that  you  should  not  be  played  with,  ordered  those  books  to  be  brought 
before  you  as  evidence,  and  when  he  steps  forward  and  refuses  to 
give  it  up,  after  waiting  three  days  until  the  Legislature  could  be 
sufficiently  lobbied,  you  made  a  report  of  that  transaction  to  the 
House,  and  we  got  judgment  that  the  Legislature  could  not  or  would 
not  order  the  books  to  be  produced,  and  the  men  who  decided  that 
those  books  should  not  be  produced,  ought  and  will  regfct  it  as  long 
as  they  live.  On  what  ground  was  ft  put?  On  the  ground  that 
Marsh  had  not  been  subpoenaed !  What  did  they  want  to  subpoena 
a  man  for  when  he  was  here  ? 


1  It  was  admitted  that  no  books  or  memoranda  whatever  liad  been  kept  of 
the  bodies  sent  away  for  dissection  for  the  first  18  years  of  the  institution's 
existence. 


Rats  gnawing  the  face  of  a  deceased  inmate.     See  testimony  of  Mrs.  Min'a 
Davis,  a  nur.se.    Record,  page  238  to  242. 


18 

I  appeal  to  you,  sir,  as  a  lawyer ;  suppose  a  man  is  in  court  and  he 
is  called  upon  the  stand  to  give  testimon}'.  Must  you  give  liim  a 
subpoeua  before  he  can  be  compelled  to  testily  ?  Never ;  never ! 
Suppose  a  man  is  before  a  court  as  a  party  with  a  book  that  is 
wanted  in  evidence  in  his  pocket ;  cannot  the  court  commit  him  for 
contempt  without  sending  out  a  subpoeua  to  bring  him  in  when  he 
is  there,  if  he  refuses  to  produce  it.  » 

Out  upon  such  nonsense  !  There  ma}'  be  a  reason,  and  a  consti- 
tutional reason,  why  Thomas  J.  Marsh  should  not  give  up  those 
books.  If  he  said  they  would  criminate  himself,  that  they  would 
show  him  guilt}'  of  crime,  then  he  could  not  be  compelled  to  produce 
thems  but  he,  and  he  alone,  must  put  the  refusal  on  that  ground, 
and  on  that  ground  only.  But  he  did  not  do  it  at  all.  Nol)ody  can 
take  that  ground  for  him.  But  one  of  the  committee*  was  kind 
enough  to  supply  him  in  the  report  with  that  defence  with  which  he 
did  not  supply  himself.  I  therefore  take  it  that  the  committee  knew 
that  produciug  the  books  would  criminate  him,  and  I  have  no  doubt 
it  would. 

Thera  has  been  a  great  deal  said  -^  I  now  refer  to  public  history 
—  about  what  the  "  old  man  "  said  he  could  do  to  reform  the  State  if 
he  could  only  see  the  books.  The  "old  m'h.n"  has  not  promised  any- 
thing if  he  could  not  see  the  books. 

I  am  absolved  from  all  promises,  as  the  Legislature  refuse  to 
let  me  see  the  books.  All  these  books  should  come  here  under  the 
order  of  the  committee  and  the  officer  of  the  State,  who  is  bound  to 
come  here  upon  the  order  of  the  committee  without  a  summons, 
should  bring  them ;  he  is  here  by  his  counsel,  here  himself.  lie  is 
here  enough  to  have  his  counsel  to  ai'gue  his  case,  yet  he  is  not  here 
enough  for  you  to  enforce  30ur  order  upon  him  after  hearino;  argu- 
ment in  his  behalf.  And  immediately  after  his  counsel  has  ceased 
arguing,  having  refused  to  produce  the  books,  he  offers  himself  as  a 
witness,  and  you  sweq.r  him.  Why  didn't  you  ask  him  if  he  had 
been  subpoenaed? 

There  never  was  such  nonsense  committed  by  mortal  man  before. 
So  we  have  not  all  or  the  more  important  books.  We  get  the  forged 
books,  and  what  they  could  not  forge  they  suppress. 

Now  as  to  this  inmates'  cash-book.  I  want  to  call  3-our  attention 
to  what  exactly  this  is.  It  is  the  only  book  of  account  for  30,000  men 
and  women  who  go  into  the  institution  and  have  the  money  which  is 
in  their  pockets,  or  their  coat,  dress,  and  other  property  taken  away 
from  them,  in  which  any  record  is  made. 

This  property  and  money  the  Marshes  have  no  more  right  to  take 


*  Mr.  Walcott,  of  Boston. 


19 

away  from  them  than  they  have  to  sell  the  bodies  of  the  dead.  I 
know  of  no  law  b}'  which  it  can  be  done.  If  anybody  else  does  I 
should  be  glad  to  have  him  point  it  out.  All  the  money,  the  jewelry, 
the  watches,  and  everything  else  is  taken  away  from  them.  Why 
shouldn't  a  poor  man  in  the  almshouse,  where  the  daj's  and  months 
are  lagging,  have  the  privilege  of  seeing  how  the  time  is  passing? 
Why  should  his  watch  be  taken  ?  In  order  that  it  may  be  stolen  — 
and  this  book  contains  the  whole  account  of  their  watches,  jewelry, 
and  money.  I  can't  go  through  it,  for  I  have  not  time.  I  shew  by 
my  expert  as  man}'  erasures  as  I  could,  but  there  were  only  fifty-four 
of  them.  I  was  exceedingly  puzzled  wh}'  there  were  not  more  ;  why 
I  could  not  find  more  erasures?  I  knew  there  were  more,  and  I 
peered  at  them  with  microscope  and  glass  ;  but  I  could  see  no  more. 
I  said  to  myself,  I  know  the}'  are  there.  The  evidence  shows  that 
money  was  taken  which  does  not  appear  on  the  books.  A  thought 
passed  througli  my  mind,  I  sent  for  a  chemist  and  asked  him :  "Can 
ink  be  taken  out  by  a  chemical  agent,  oxalic,  or  some  other  acid,  so 
as  to  leave  no  trace  of  the  figures?"  "Yes,  sir."  "And  can  you 
restore  the  original  figures  with  a  re-agent,  like  gallic  acid?  ".  "  Yes, 
sir."  I  said,  "  Here  are  three  places  in  this  book  where  the  testi- 
mony shows  more  money  received  than  was  paid  over.  Won't  you  try 
your  hand  on  them  ? "  I  had  no  time  to  search  for  others,  and  put 
him  on  the  three  cases,  and  the  application  of  gallic  acid  brought  out 
the  figures  in  each  case. 

One  was  where  the  cash-books  showed  five  dollars  to  be  paid 
over  to  the  Commonwealth,  where  the  amount  had  been  fifteen,  and 
the  figure  1  had  been  taken  out,  and  the  application  of  the  chemical 
re-agent  restored  it. 

In  another  case,  where  acid  had  been  applied  to  erase  a  figure ^ 
and  another  figure  had  been  written  over  it,  the  application  of  the 
re-agent  brought  out  the  original  figure. 

The  third  case  was  where  it  was  in  testimojay  that  a  woman,  Ellen 
Allen,  took  to  Tewksbury  with  her  $156.  And  what  was  remarkable 
was  that  the  boy,  her  nephew,  testified  to  the  6,  as  you  will  remem- 
ber. The  entry  in  her  case  appeal's  at  the  bottom  of  the  first  page 
of  this  book,  and  the  amount  standing  to  her  credit  at  the  time  of 
her  death,  which  was  afterwards  carried  into  the  State  treasury,  was 
one  dollar.  It  appears  that  some  figure  had  been  erased  before  the 
1,  and  the  application  of  the  chemical  re-agent  in  this  case  made  the  1 
a  6,  showing  that  the  6  had  been  altered  into  a  1  ;  but  the  figures 
had  been  scratched  with  a  knife  so  scratching  oflT  of  the  paper  the 
ink  as  to  leave  nothing  for  the  chemical  to  act  upon,  so  that  the  otlier 
figures  erased  could  not  be  reproduced.  There  never  was  so  great  a 
confii'mation  of  testimony  since  this  world  began. 


20 

Miss  Allen's  nephew  testified  that  she  took  with  her  "  two  gold 
rings,  a  pair  of  gold  ear-rings,  a  gold  pin,  and  some  gold  studs.  She 
had  a  black  cashmere  double  shawl,  two  dresses,  which  were  nice 
dresses.  She  had  lots  of  other  clothes  besides,  aud  had  nice  under- 
clothes." 

But  when  her  brother^went  up  to  Tewksbury  after  these  things,  ho 
was  told  that  there  was  nothing  there.  There  was  no  record  of 
them,  aud  no  record  of  the  money,  —  over  §150,  only  6 1  paid  to 
the  State  at  her  death.  We  find  the  figures  scratched  out  and  taken 
out  by  acid  in  the  account,  which  is  a  mode  of  account-keeping  by 
double  entry  at  Tewksbur}-. 

Here,  in  the  first  case  mentioned  (showing  the  book  to  the  com- 
mittee) you  can  see  the  figure  1  which  has  been  brought  out.  It 
won't  last  long,  but  it  can  be  brought  out  again  by  another  applica- 
tion of  the  chemical  re-agent.  Now,  I  do  not  care  what  the  rest  of  the 
other  entries  seem  to  be.  The  chemist  says  that  three  out  of  these 
entries  —  the  only  ones  upon  which  he  made  any  experiment  —  have 
been  taken  out  by  the  use  of  acid.  If  they  had  produced  this  book 
in  the  beginning  when  called  for,  and  I  had  had  wit  enough  to  think 
how  the  fraud  was  done,  I  should  have  had  them  all  tried  by  the  ap- 
plication of  chemicals  to  ascertain  to  what  extent  acid  had  been  used 
for  the  purpose  of  falsifying  these  accounts  of  the  moneys  of  these 
poor  people.  But  the  Marshes  kept  it  back.  If  they  will  steal 
chickens  and  old  dresses,  and  if  they  will  steal  tiie  poor  inmates' 
mone}',  what,  will  the}'  do  with  the  money  of  the  Commonwealth? 
The}'  have  disbursed  over  $2,000,000  in  this  institution?  And  these 
are  the  accounts.  The  account  is  kept  here  exactly  like  the  account 
in  the  auditor's  oflSce,  as  of  course  it  would  be,  as  the}-  are  kept  and 
the  duplicate  sent  down  there. 

Now,  here  is  another  matter :  You  will  find,  year  by  year,  $500 
worth  of  tobacco  purchased.  French  Joe  swears  he  sold  no  tobacco 
to  the  inmates,  and  was  not  allowed  to.  What  was  the  tobacco  there 
for?  Old  Mr.  Marsh  swears  that  his  farmer,  Mr.  Poor,  had  been  in 
the  habit  of  selling  calves  and  buying  tobacco  outside  for  the  men, 
and  that  he  made  no  account  of  it ;  and  still  Charles  B.  Marsh  says  he 
charged  large  sums  on  the  cash-book  against  these  inmates  for  to- 
bacco. Then  it  was  the  tobacco  of  the  State,  and  there  is  not  a 
single  credit  given  the  State  for  the  proceeds  of  tobacco  sold. 

But  these  are  by  far  the  least  important  matters.  They  have  been 
going  on  there  for  -a  quarter  of  a  century,  aud  have  never  kept  an 
account  of  any  article.  They  have  not  kept  any  account  of  the 
coming  in  of  supplies,  and  when  they  issued  them  in  quantities, 
larger  or  smaller,  to  the  cooks  and  everybody  else,  clothing  and 
everything  else,  there  was  no  account  kept  of  such  issue ;  and  the 


21 

man  they  have  had  in  charge  of  that  business  for  j-ears,  French  Joe, 
was  a  drunkard,  a  libertine,  and  a  liar ;  as  he  admits  under  oath,  he 
used  to  come  down  to  Boston  every  now  and  then  with  Mary  Tynam, 
—  a  prostitute  kept  at  Tewksbury,  —  and  spend  a  week  at  a  time  at  a 
bad  house.  And  then  he  would  come  back,  and  afterwards  she  would 
come  back,  and  he  would  go  to  dealing  out  the  Commonwealth's 
clothing,  and  all  the  stores,  as  if  nothing  had  happened.  And  no 
account  would  be  kept. 

I  come  now  to  a  matter  of  much  moi-e  importance.  That  is  the 
cruel  and  abusive  treatment  of  the  living. 

This  was  also  a  home  for  the  reception  of  infants,  and  Mrs. 
Dudley  gives  an  account  of  how  the}-  were  treated.  She  was  there 
and  saw  these  infants  ;  and,  first  of  all,  let  me  say  that  seventy-one 
out  of  seventj'-two  sent  there  died.  Why,  she  tells  us  "she  found 
the  nurse  sleeping,  and  fires  out  in  the  foundling  department ;  saw 
there  a  half-pint  bottle  of  morphia  that  the  night  nurse  said  she  gave 
to  the  foundlings  to  quiet»them."  [Rec,  p.  216.]  "I  often  found 
the  infants'  milk-bottles  sour  ;  reported  this  to  Captain  Marsh.  [Rec, 
p.  217.]  "An  insane  woman,  at  one  time  helping  care  for  infants, 
once  saw  an  infant  with  a  pillow  over  its  head —  it  looked  suffocated  ; 
insane  woman  said  she  did  it,  and  swore  about  it ;  Mrs.  Burbank 
said  she  reported  it  to  Captain  Marsh ;  the  child  was  dead  when  I 
found  it." 

And  yet  the  nurse  ren;ained  there.  Simple  murder,  gentlemen ; 
what  they  hang  people  for  in  civilized  communities. 

Charles  L.  Dudley  said  to  the  nurse  one  night,  "  Your  babies  are 
getting  along  nicely."  She  said  she  had  found  a  wa}'  to  keep  them 
quiet ;  she  got  a  bottle,  shook  it,  and  said,  "  Tliis  is  the  stuff."  The 
mixture  was  morphia.  [Rec,  p.  96.]  There  were  seventy-thi'ee  in- 
fants that  I  kept  run  of;  only  one  survived  at  the  end  of  the  year. 
[Rec,  p.  97.]* 

Miss  Agnes  Calder  said  :  "I  had  charge  of  the  infants  ;  had  fif- 
teen or  sixteen  at  a  time  ;  when  they  died,  got  some  more  ;  perhaps 
they  would  all  die  in  a  week  or  two ;  they  could  not  retain  the  milk 
on  their  stomachs  ;  had  charge  of  babies  before." 

Mark  Ileathcote  said:  "I  took  a  foundling  up  to  Tewksbury; 
was  kept  waiting  in  office  forty-five  minutes  ;  saw  a-  woman  have  this 
baby,  and  she  filled  its  mouth  full  of  soap  ;  I  was  near  and  saw  this 
done." 

Deacon  John  Carver  (and  I  cannot  go  into  this  gentleman's  case, 
gentlemen,  without  a  nauseating  feeling  of  perfect  disgust  at  his  treat- 
ment by  the  Marsh's  counsel).  He  was  an  old  man,  the  father  of  a 
family,  a  deacon,  not  in  a  fashionable  church,  but  in  a  church  where 

*  The  ofRcial  register  shows  Dudley  to  be  truthful  in  this.  He  is  confirmed 
ty  another  witness. 


2:  ^ 


*^    2 


22 

thoy  believe  there  is  a  devil  to  punish  sins.  (Laughter.)  Now, 
somebody,  knowing  the  kind  disposition  of  the  old  deacon,  left  on  his 
door-step,  one  bitter  cold  night,  enveloped  in  a  'rich  and  valuable 
shawl,  a  well-dressed  child,  and  the  deacon  took  it  in.  He  tried  to 
get  some  of  his  neighbors  to  adopt  it,  as  his  wife  had  some  of  her 
own  ;  but  none  would  do  so.  After  keeping  the  child  for  a  time,  he 
and  his  wife  came  to  the  conclusion  that  it  would  have  to  go  to  the  poor- 
house.  Tlic}'  went  to  the  town  almshouse,  but  were  informed  that 
the  child  could  not  remain  there  because  it  did  not  belong  in  the 
town ;  its  parents  wei'e  unknown,  and,  therefore,  it  became  a  State 
charge.  They  then  came  to  the  conclusion,  after  deliberating  some 
time,  that  they  would  carry  it  up  to  Tewksbury,  and  they  did.  They 
went  home,  after  leaving  the  child  there  wrapped  up  in  a  valuable 
shawl.  After  Mrs.  Carver  had  left,  her  heart  misgave  her,  and  in 
two  days  she  and  her  husband  went  back  after  the  child.  The  counsel, 
in  his  argument,  made  the  vulgar  insinuation  that  the  child  was  the 
child  of  the  deacon.  Without  a  word  of  evidence,  the  kindness  and 
philanthropy  of  this  Christian  man  and  woman  are  repaid  by  the 
Marsh  party  instructing  their  lawyer  to  insinuate  to  you  and  the 
Commonwealth  that  Deacon  Carver  had  been  guilty  of  adulter^',  and 
that  the  child  left  on  the  doorsteps  of  his  house  that  cold  night  was 
his  own  illegitimate  offspring.  I  never  have  been,  in  the  course  of 
an  experience  of  forty  years  at  the  bar,  so  shocked  as  I  was  at  this 
insinuation.  If  there  had  been  a  scintilla  of  evidence,  if  anybody 
had  said  that  the  old  deacon  sta3-ed  out  nights,  except  when  he  went 
to  prayer-meeting,  if  there  had  been  anything  brought  out  in  the 
evidence  upon  which  to  base  any  such  statement,  I  would  not  say  a 
word.  But  the  old  gentleman  and  his  wife,  fearing  that  the  child 
would  die  if  left  at  Tewksbury,  from  what  they  saw  there,  went  back 
after  it,  and  so  a  vulgar  laugh  was  raised  b}'  counsel  among  the 
friends  of  the  Marshes  (you  could  not  have  got  it  anywhere  else) 
against  the  good  deacon,'  Well,  gentlemen  of  the  committee,  Mrs. 
Carver  told  her  own  story.  She  took  the  child  back  and  it  lived, 
although  it  had  lost  six  pounds  while  it  was  gone,  which  was  only 
two  or  three  days.  When  Mrs.  Carver  went  with  her  husband  to  get 
the  child  it  was  cold  weather,  and  she  asked  for  the  shawl,  which  was 
a  valuable  one,  in  which  the  child  was  wrapped  when  she  brought  it 
there -^ but  two  days  before.  She  could  not  get  the  shawl;  the 
Marshes  had  stolen  it ;  and,  as  she  could  not  find  any  place  to  buy 
one  to  wrap  the  baby  in  on  her  return.  Captain  Marsh  took  a  light 
shawl  from  another  child  that  had  just  come  in  from  Westford,  and 
gave  it  to  Mrs.  Carver  to  wrap  her  baby  in.  Her  shawl  was  sold 
down  at  Exeter,  doubtless,  with  the  rest  of  the  inmates'  clothing  ;  at 
all  events,  it  was  lost  to  Mrs.  Carver.     Now,  Mrs.  Carver  swears  to 


23 

that,  and  this  child  was  not  her  child,  and  there  is  nothing  against 
her  character  at  any  rate.     Why  not  believe  her? 

Upon  this  treatment  of  children  let  me  refer  to  another  thing. 
The  defence  brought  a  woman  here  (3'ou  saw  her)  to  swear  that  all 
the  children  that  went  to  Tewksbury  from  the  Chardon  Street  Home 
were  dying  —  substantially.  We  then  got  the  records  from  that 
home,  and  they  shew  what?  She  had  sworn  that  out  of  the  seventy- 
one  infants  sent  from  that  home  in  a  given  time  to  Tewksbury, 
they  were  all  diseased.  Now,  the  records  show  this:  "Diseased, 
1  ;  not  stated,  1  ;  good,  5;  fair,  35;  feeble,  27";  and  yet  they  all 
died.  I  say  now  what  I  have  said  before,  that  it  would  have  been 
a  mercy  to  these  poor  creatures  to  have  had  somebody  pinch  their 
heads  before  they  were  sent  to  this  infant  slaughter-house  to  die  a 
lingering  death  of  starvation  and  slow  poison  by  morphia. 

Now,  let  us  see  what  can  be  done  within  eight  miles  of  Tewks- 
bury. We  had  a  man  here,  Colonel  Pindar,  who  has  charge  of  the 
almshouse  at  Lowell,  attached  to  which  is  a  foundling  asylum.  All 
kinds  of  people  are  sent  there,  and  it  is  just  such  an  institution  as 
the  one  at  Tewksbury.  Let  us  see  what  was  the  death  rate  there  last 
year. 

Albert  Pindar,  superintendent  of  the  Lowell  almshouse,  testified 
in  answers  to  questions  from  Governor  Butler:  "  In  the  nursery  I 
have  an  average  of  from  forty  to  forty-five." 

Q.    How  old  does  the  nursery-  include? 

A.    All  the  way  from  a  birth  to  nine  or  ten  years. 

Q.    How  many  children  have  30U  in  the  i-eform  school? 

A.  I  think  I  have  twentj-six  sentenced,  ^besides  about  as  many 
more  pauper  children. 

Q.  Twenty-six  convicts  —  that  is,  sentenced  there  by  the  courts, 
sentenced  there  by  the  Police  Court? 

A.    Yes,  sir. 

Q.    And  about  the  same  number  of  what? 

A.  About  the  same  number  of  pauper  children ;  they  all  attend 
the  same  school. 

Q.  Hmv  many  children  under  the  age  of  nine,  in  the  nursery,  did 
yoii  lose  last  5'ear? 

A.  I  don't  think  I  lost  a  child  last  year,  if  my  memory  serves  me 
right ;  I  have  lost  one  or  two  this  year. 

Forty  of  them,  and  not  a  death,  and  this  almshouse  is  only  eight 
miles  from  Tewksbury,  gentlemen  of  the  committee,  and  yet  at 
Tewksbury  they  lost  seventy-one  out  of  seventy-two.  Is  it  because 
they  feed  them  any  better  at  Lowell?  No.  Colonel  Pindar  sa^'s  it 
don't  cost  but  one  dollar  and  seven  cents  a  week  for  each  jjAlividual, 
to  carry  on  the  almshouse,  while  at  Tewksbury  it  costs  two  dollars 
and  nine  cents  a  week  for  each  individual,  and  they  have  a  school  at 
Lowell  besides,  which  is  not  the  case  at  Tewksbury. 


24 

ISTow,  then,  as  all  the  foundlings  that  went  to  Tewksburj  died, 
and  us  that  has  been  going  on  from  1854  down  to  1878,  almost  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  what  were  these  children  sent  there  for  but  to 
die?  Why,,  then,  would  it  not  have  been  better  to  have  let  them  die 
where  they  were  and  have  saved  the  State  the  expense  of  an  officer 
and  a  nurse  to  take  them  up  there,  except  that  some  of  the  active 
politicians  of  a  given  party  must  live  and  have  the  means  of  living 
out  of  the  State  ? 

Now,  then,  let  us  see  how  they  delivered  children  at  this  excel- 
lently-managed institution  —  and  here  I  refer  to  a  man  whom  Mr. 
Brown  said  in  his  argument  disappointed  me  as  a  witness.  Well,  he 
did.  Mr.  Brown  was  right  there.  He  was  a  graduate  of  Harvard 
who  was  called  to  tell  something  against  a  member  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Medical  Society.  It  was  not  to  be  supposed  that  he  would 
do  it,  but  when  he  got  on  the  stand  he  did,  and  disappointed  me. 
(Applause.)  A  woman  was  in  labor  and  she  had  been  in  labor  for 
some  houi's,  and  the  witness,  then  only  a  student,  was  watching  the 
case.  During  the  progress  of  the  labor,  the  resident  physician.  Dr. 
Lathrop,  was  sent  for  and  told  that  the  labor  was  a  protracted  one. 
He  made  no  examination  of  the  woman,  but  determined  to  apply 
instruments  —  she  was  a  pauper.  The  result  will  be  seen  by  the  fol- 
lowing testimou}',  given  by  Dr.  West :  — 

Q.    What  was  done  then  ? 

A.    The  forceps  were  applied. 

Q.    That  is,  that  was  the  first  thing  done  by  him  at  any  rate? 

A.    Yes,  sir.  < 

Q.    The  forceps  were  applied,  and  how  were  the  forceps  applied? 

A.    The  forceps  were  applied  to  the  head. 

Q.    Was  any  considerable  degree  of  force  used  with  the  forceps  ? 

A.    Yes,  sir. 

Q.  Won't  you  describe  now,  without  any  asking  questions,  doc- 
tor ;  you  don't  seem  to  be  more  than  oixlinarily  communicative,  if  you 
will  pardon  me;  won't  you  describe  exactly  what  was  done  with  the 
forceps,  and  how  the  force  was  applied  ;  state  the  condition  of  the 
woman,  the  position  of  the  woman  ;  state  the  position  of  the  doctor 
with  his  forceps  on  this  child,  and  state  it  all. 

A.  The  woman  was  lying  crosswise  of  the  bed,  feet  out  on  a  chair, 
and  there  were  two  nurses  present.  They  managed  the  ether  and 
kept  the  right  side  of  the  bed,  and  Dr.  Lathrop  and  I  were  on  the 
left  side  of  the  bed.  The  forceps  were  put  on,  tied  with  a  towel,  and 
traction  was  commenced. 

Q.  That  is,  the  forceps  were  brought  together,  wrapped  with  a 
towel? 

A.    "fcs,  sir. 

Q.    M  as  to  get  a  good  hold  ? 

A.    Yes,  sir. 

Q.    Very  good  ;  then  what  was  done? 

A.   Then  he  made  traction. 


SURGICAL  INSTRUMENTS. 


The  only  Rurgicnl  loptruments  in  Tewksbur}'  with  which  Dr.  Latlirop 
tried  to  break  up  the  sku  1  of  an  infant  in  a  case  of  difficult  iabcT.  [See 
Record,  pages  COS  to  G22  ]  ^ 


25 

Q.    Made  traction? 

A.    Pulled. 

Q.    How  did  he  pull? 

A.  He  pulled  gently  at  first,  and  then  sat  down  on  the  floor  atid 
braced  up  against  the  bed  and  the  woman. 

Q.  Now,  doctor,  wasn't  this  it —  didn't  he  put  his  feet  against  the 
woman  and  sit  down  and  pull  with  all  his  might? 

A.    Ye^;,  sir. 

Q.   And  his  forceps  slipped? 

A.    Yes,  sir. 

Q.    Where  did  he  go  to? 

4-    Over  the  floor. 

Q.    Heels  over  head  ? 

A.  Yes,  sir ;  I  should  like  to  state  here,  though.  Governor,  that, 
as  I  understand  it,  this  can,  even  frequently  does,  happen  in  an 
ordinary  case ;  I  never  saw  it  happen  before  or  since. 

Q.    But  does  it  always  happen? 

A.    I  understand  it  can  happen. 

Q.  It  can  happen  ;  oh,  yes.  It  di;l  happen  ;  that  is  evidence  it 
can.  You  never  happened  to  see  anything  of  tliat  sort  happen  be- 
fore or  since.  Was  this  traction,  as  you  call  it.  this  pulling,  braced 
against  the  woman,  with  a  towel,  to  get  a  good  hold  of  the  forceps, 
braced  back  —  was  that  a  coutiuual  traction  ? 

A.    Yes,  sir. 

Q.    For  how  long? 

A.  Fifteen  or  twent}'  minutes  ;  twenty  to  thirty  minutes  my  notes 
say. 

Q.  And  then  the  forceps  slipped,  and  over  he  went?  Now,  then, 
isn't  it  the  rule  of  practice  in  obstetrics,  sir,  that  there  is  to  be  first  a 
pull  to  h:.'lp  along,  and  then  a  letting  up  ;  a  pull,  and  tlien  a  letting 
up,  so  that  nature  should  have  a  chance  ;  and  then,  if  the  contraction 
of  the  muscles  don't  do  it,  another  pull,  and  so  on.  Isn't  that  light 
practice  ? 

A.    Yes,  sir. 

Q.   He  tumbled  over ;  did  he  pull  any  more  on  the  forceps? 

A.   Yes,  sir. 

Q.    What  was  done? 

A.    He  attempted  to  perform  craniotomy. 

Q.  Now,  I  have  had  a  good  many  malpractice  cases  in  my  life, 
and  1  know  the  meaniiig  of  these  terms  ;  cnuiiotomy  means,  does  it, 
to  brenk  up  the  skull  and  to  wash  out  the  brain,  and  then  collapso 
the  skull  and  try  to  get  the  head  out  that  way  ? 

A.    Yes,  sir. 

Q.    Did  you  advise  that? 

A.  I  was  there  as  a  student,  and,  of  course,  had  nothing  to  do 
with  it,  excepting  to  obey  orders. 

Q.    Did  he  go  for  his  tools  to  do  that  with? 

A.    Yes,  sir. 

Q.    Went  down  to  the  dispensary  or  off  somewhere? 

A.    Yes,  sir. 

Q.   Did  he  come  back  bringing  his  tools  ? 

A.    Yes,  sir. 

Q.   What  were  those  tools? 


26 

A.    There  were  not  any  tools  proper  to  do  it  with. 

Q.  I  know  there  were  not  any  tools  proper  to  do  it  with  ;  what 
did  he  bring?     Let  us  have  it,  doctor. 

A.  Well,  it  was  a  screw-driver  and  a  rat-tail  fde  that  he 
brouglit  up. 

Q.  Did  3-ou  ever  see  these  used  before  or  since  for  such  a  pur- 
pose ? 

A.   No,  sir. 

Q.  "Which  did  he  put  ia  first;  the  rat-tail  fde?  Had  the  rat-tail 
a  handle  on  it? 

A.    I  don't  seem-  to  remember. 

Q.    Don't  remember? 

A.    No.  sir. 

Q.  Which  did  he  put  in  there  first ;  the  rat-tail  file  or  the  scrcvi^- 
driver  ? 

A.  Well,  I  am  sure  I  could  not  tell  you,  Govcrnoi-,  it  v/as  eo 
long  ago :  at  any  rate.  1  know  he  brought  them  up  and  us.'d  thcni. 

Q.  Now,  then,  he  tried,  if  1  uuderstaud  it,  to  punch  a  holo  in  the 
child's  skull  with  that  rat-tail  file? 

A.    Yes,  sir. 

Q.    The  skull  is  a  little  hard  ;  did  it  slip  and  injure  the  woman? 

A.    1  don't  hardly  see  how  it  could  have  avoided  it. 

Q.    Nor  1  either ;  1  want  to  kiiow  if  it  did-i't. 

A.  It  would  be  impossible  to  say  whether  it  did  or  didn't;  there 
was  considerable  hemorriiage  at  tlie  time. 

Q.  And  v/hether  that  was  caused  by  the  rat-tail  fib  or  natural 
hemorrhage,  you  don't  kno'v? 

A.  No,  sir ;  the  woman  ruptured ;  possibly  it  might  h;ive  como 
from  that.     She  was  ruptured  by  the  instruments. 

Then  I  asked  him  whether  they  had  proper  instruments  to  perform 
such  an  oj>eration,  and  he  suid  *'  no." 

Q.    When  was  this? 

A.    1878. 

Now,  this  institution  has  been  running  twenty-nine  years,  and  was 
not  provided  with  Ihj  necessary  instruments  to  perform  such  a  com- 
mon operation  in  cases  of  diificnlt  labor,  although  this  was  the  place 
where  women  were  sent  for  the  p.n-pose  of  lying-in.  But  the  n"xt 
day,  upon  this  young  Dr.  West's  request,  they  bought  the  required 
instruments,  but  discharged  Dr.  West  for  making  the  com[)linnt. 

Now,  my  brother  Brown  said  Dr.  Lathrop  saved  the  woman's  life. 
Pardon  me  ;  let  us  put  it  the  other  way  :  he  killed  the  baby,  and  he 
simply  did  not  kill  the  mother  I  (Applause.)  I  once  heai-d  of  just 
such  a  skilfully  conducted  case,  where  a  young  doctor  attended  his 
first  case,  very  similar  to  this  one.  and  upon  his  retuin  he  told  an  old 
physician  wh.it  he  had  done.  "Did  you  save  the  child?"  said  the 
old  doctor.  "  No,"  was  the  reply.  "  Tliat  is  bad,"  said  the  elder. 
"  Did  you  save  the  mother?"  *'  No,"  answered  the  young  physician. 
"That  is  pretty  bad,"  was  the  reply.  "'AVliat  did  you  do?"  "I 
saved  the  old  man."  (Laughter.)  This  case  the  doctor  whom  we 
had  on  the  stand  swore  was  a  gi'oss  case  of  maljn-actice.  He  reported 
it  to  Captain  IMai-sh,  and  he  was  turned  off  by  the  trustees  at  the 
very  next  meeting,  although  he  was  giving  his  services  without  any 
salary,  and  a  woman  hired  to  take  his  place  at  a  salary. 


27 

Now  let  US  go  to  some  more  testimony  of  the  negligence  and  cru- 
elty of  tlK'8^  people  :  — 

'josei)li  B.-ebe,  in  1881,  saw  a  patient  nibbed  with  anguintum  ;  he 
renionstiatvd,  saying  the  patient  vvoiikl  die  if  he  should  take  cold. 
The  attendant  replied,  "  Let  him  die."      [Ilec,  p.  1)2.).] 

Dr.  Lathrop  would  seldom  attend  patients ;  would  put  them  off 
when  his  services  were  sought.  A  man  choked  to  death  at  the  table, 
but  no  relief  was  administered. 

Dr.  Kenney  ordered  a  boy  with  whooping-cough  to  take  a  sweat; 
the  directions  were  followed,  and  the  undertaker  took  the  boy  in  a 
few  hours.      [Rec,  p.  528.] 

Abbie  E.  Wheeler  was  in  Tcwksbury  in  1881,  and  saw  Mrs. 
Durning,  a  nurse,  jump  on  a  sick  patient  with  her  knees,  because 
patient  could  not  take  her  medicine. 

Mrs.  McCleary,  another  nurse,  strangled  a  patient  while  crying 
for  Ibod  ;  patient  was  in  the  dead-house  the  next  week. 

IVIrs.  Marsh,  the  matron,  and  attendants,  neglected  to  visit  the 
patients. 

Now,  what  did  ^Ir,  Dudley  say?  He  says:  "When  I  went  to 
the  almsliouse  1  found  an  inmate  confined  in  a  cell ;  no  attention 
wiis  paid  to  my  repeated  nquosts  for  medical  assistance,  and  the 
inmate  was  found  dead  in  the  cell."     [Rec,  p.  7G.] 

"  Little  children  cried  from  hunger."     [Rcc,  p.  84.] 

'•  Complaint  was  made  to  Captain  Marsh."      [Ilec,  p.  8').] 

"  Female  insane'  were  mostly  without  underclothes,  shoes,  and 
Btockings.  and  were  nearly  naked."     [Rec,  p.  1)0.] 

'•  A  female  inmate  w;is  found  nuked  in  a  cell  where  she  had  been 
confined  a  ^-ear."     [Rec,  p.  90.] 

She  was  practically  a  skeleto:j,  and  was  attendsd  by  an  idiotic 
attendant,  who  would  deposit  her  food  in  a  water-closet.  She  was 
rescued  and  has  fully  recovered.     [Rec,  p.  91.] 

Now,  I  iigree  that  they  brought  one  or  two  people  to  swear  against 
these  statements  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Dudley,  but  I  am  willing  to  take 
Mrs.  Leonard's  opinion  of  the  Dudley's,  and  she  says:  "1  have 
known  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Dudley  for  10  3ears  ;  1  would  believe  the  state- 
ment of  the  Dudleys."* 


*  Wlio  is  Mrs.  Leonard  ^  A  very  intelligent  lady  of  Springfield,  wife  of  a 
very  prominont  railroad  president  tliere,  who  was  appointed  on  the  Board  of 
State  Cliaritios  Ly  Governor  Long  in  1839.  Slie  has  been  long  engaged  in  phil- 
anthropic) work.  Before  this  investigation  she  had  never  l;een  in  the  Tewkshnry 
almshouse  but  once  after  she  made  this  statement  in  favor  of  the  Dudleys  in 
April  last.  After  the  Governor  ordered  the  Board  of  State  Charities  to  take 
charge  of  the  almshouse,  she  was  sent  up  by  the  Board  to  Tewksbury  to  examine 
the  institution  and  make  a  report.  She  being  the  only  woman  on  the  Board,  her 
Iioliti^al  prospects  would  not  be  hurt  if  the  report  was  a  whitewashing  one.  The 
Chniriii.ii.  Mr.  Tailuit,  who  lived  within  five  miles,  and  who  had  signed  Superin- 
tendeiit  M  ush's  official  bond,  d'ul  not  go  himself.  Of  course,  the  investigation 
then  gf/if.^-  on,  the  institution  was  put  in  apple-])ie  order  for  Mrs.  Leonard's 
inspection.     Mr^.  Leonard's  report  was  so  satisfactorily  iu  favor  of  the  Marshes 


Picco  of  Skin  cut  from  the  breast  of  a  woman,  sho-wing  the  nipple,  and 
jUastrating  the  manner  ia  which  it  was  cut  into  shapa  for  sol©  leather.  [See 
Records,  page  437  to  1049.] 


28 

I  come  to  another,  aud  the  gravest  of  all  the  offences  against 
these  poor  insane  wards  of  the  State,  the  treatment  of  Charlotte 
Anderson,  which  is  so  horrible  and  revolting  that  ray  brother  Brown 
did  not  dare  to  say  anything  about  it.  He  could  not  have  forgotten 
Charlotte  Anderson,  a  young  Swedish  girl.  She  came  to  this  counti^, 
and  after  hard  work  succeeded  in  saving  enough  money  to  bring  her 
young  and  beloved  sister  over  here,  the  lady  of  intelligence,  Mrs. 
Hanson,  whom  you  saw  on  the  stand.  After  the  sister's  arrival, 
Charlotte  was  taken  with  melancholia,  a  species  of  quiet  insanity. 
Siio  was  first  sont  to  Taunton  Insane  Asylum  and  thence  to  'l>wks- 
burv.  After  slie  had  been  there  a  year  and  a  half  this  distressed  and 
abused  ins.nne  girl  was  found  to  be  with  child.  Her  sister  had  been 
in  the  habit  of  visiting  her  once  in  three  months,  but  just  before  tnis 
sad  l)irtl)  was  told  not  to  como  too  often  ;  but  on  the  next  visit,  to 
her  astonishment  and  horror,  she  found  her  sister  with  a  baby  in  her 
arms.  She  demanded  of  her  who  was  the  father  of  the  child.  The 
mother  made  an  intelligent  answer,  bnt  that  answer  the  committee 
ds'cided  to  rule  out.  What  did  the  horror-stricken  woman  then  do? 
You  saw  her,  an  intelligent  young  woman,  and  as  honest  and  trutliful 
as  the  sun.  Exactly  what  she  ought  to  have  done.  She  took  her 
demented  sister,  with  the  cliild  in  her  arms,  and  went  to  Captain 
Mar.-!h's  office,  and  there  found  liim.  What  was  said  when  they  met 
I  was  not  allowed  to  ptit  in  evidence  by  vote  of  the  nominal  majority, 
there  not  b-'ing  a  full  committee  at  the  time,  but  we  know  what  she 
said  as  well  as  if  W3  had  becm  there.  She  took  her  insane  sister 
fi-o'.n  the  hos[)ital  of  the  almshotisc,  with  her  baby  in  her  a^s,  and 
v/ent  to  Ca[)t{iin  IMarsh's  ofRce  to  find  out  what?  She  had  asked  her 
si  iter  who  was  the  father  of  it.  The  child,  not  of  her  shame,  but  of 
hor  insanity.  We  can  hear  her  sobbing,  bnt  percmi)tory  demand, 
"  Who  io  the  father  of  this  child?"  Here,  upon  the  Superintendent,  ■ 
t'len,  was  a  solemn  occasion,  an  interview  at  which  neither  of  us 
wonld  have  wished  to  have  been  present.  I  have  seen  in  the  news- 
papers that  Mr.  Marsh  made   a  jocose  answer.     Let  me  saj*  again 


thnt  Ihc  TJcpublican  State  Committee  published  a  very  large  edition,  —  many 
thousands  of  it,  —  and  distributed  over  the  State ;  besides  it  was  publislied  in  all 
the  leading  Hepublican  papers,  even  while  the  same  matter  was  under  investiga- 
tion by  a  Ivepublican  Legislature.  Thus,  the  exculpation  of  the  Marshes  was 
made  a  party  question,  and  the  Legislature  whitewashed  the  Marshes  by  a  strict 
pnrtj  i^ote,  save  that  six  Republicans  had  the  honest  manliness  to  vote  with  the 
minoritj'.  Mrs.  Leonard  was  not  called  as  a  witness.  Why  not  ?  A  cross- 
examination  might  have  damaged  the  report.  It  was  a  better  party  trick  that 
the  report  should  go  out  as  ua  unsworn  ex  parte  statement.  The  testimony  of 
Mrs.  Leonard  in  favor  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Dudley,  given  before  she  was  employed  to 
bolster  up  the  Marshes,  is  most  valuable  and  convincing. 


29 

thnt  this  was  a  solemn  occasion.  Here  was  a  grief-stricken  woman 
wiio  had  fonud  lier  virtuous  insane  sister  witli  cliild,  gotten  in  an 
insane  asylum  under  the  care  of  the  State.  She  went  to  the  liead  of 
the  institution  with  her  sister  and  her  child,  and  put  a  sorrowful 
question  to  Capt.  Marsh.  The  committee  would  not  even  let  me  put 
in  evidence  even  what  she  said,  but  whatever  passed  between  them, 
Captain  Marsh,  adjured  there  to  tell  the  truth,  laid  his  hand  upon  the 
insane  mother's  shoulder  and  said:  ''  We  know  how  to  make  babies 
here,  don't  we,  Charlotte?"  Was  this  a  time  for  joking?  I  care  not 
which  way  you  take  it,  I  have  attempted  to  put  in  what  the  insane 
girl  said  to  her  sister,  but  it  was  excluded  ;  but  we  can  guess  what  it 
was.  This  woman  had  just  found  her  sister  in  an  insavie  hospital 
with  a  babe  in  her  arms.  She  went  of  course  to  find  out  who  had 
done  this  grievous  wrong  to  her  craz}-  sister,  and  she  took  her  sister 
and  the  baby  with  her,  in  order  to  find  put  who  the  father  was,  if  pos- 
sible. What  would  an  innocent,  right-minded  man  have  said,  if  he 
had  been  called  upon  on  such  an  errand  !  He  would  have  cried  out : 
"  I  don't  know;  I  am  sorrv  I  do  not,  bu^  I  will  Imnt  the  lecherous 
rascal  down  if  I  have  to  hunt  him  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  I  will 
pursue  to  the  best  of  my  ability  and  power  the  fellow  who  has  dis- 
graced my  institution  and  the  Commonwealth  in  this  way.  ]My  dear 
lad3%  don't  weep  ;  I  am  as  sorry  as  you  can  be  ;  I  grieve  with  you ; 
I  have  been  hunting  i'or  the  scoundrel,  and  will  continue  to  hunt  for 
him."  That  is  what  any  man  who  is  fit  to  live  oi\  earth  would  have 
said;  but  what  did  ho  say?  "  We  know  how  to  make  babies  here, 
don't  we,  Cliarlotte?"  And  that  is  all  the  satisfaction  the  ptv.n- 
woman  got  for  this  great  wrong  to  her  demented  sister.  Gentlemen 
of  the  Committee,  Captain  Marsh  does  not  deny  this. 

The  chairman.  —  I  understand  he  did. 

Governor  Butler.  —  He  said  tliat  he  did  not  remember  that  she  had 
a  sister.  I  read  from  the  record  :  "I  have  no  doubt  she  was  gotten 
with  child  in  this  institution.  I  did  not  use  the  words.  I  do  not 
remember  she  had  a  sisti-r."  Now,  don't  you  think  tiiat  such  a  scene 
would  have  been  stamped  upon  your  mind,  Mr.  Chairman,  and  upon 
the  minds  of  every  gentleman  of  this  committee  as  if  with  a  burning 
branding  iron.  It  would  have  been  more  indellibly  impressed  upon 
your  minds  than  was  the  tattooed  picttn-e  of  the  cruciiixion  upon  poor 
Eklund's  breast,  which  was  not  to  be  erased  even  by  tanning  after 
death.  You  believe  that  woman.  Is  there  a  man  on  die  committee 
that  dares  put  his  hand  on  his  heart,  and  nix>n  his  honor,  and  upon 
his  conscience  say  he  does  not  believe  that  woman  ?  What  motive 
could  she  have  to  testify  falsely  to  such  a  story  ?  She  left  at  the 
almshouse  her  name  and  address,  and  it  was  by  Capt.  :Marsh  put  on 
the  books,  — look  at  the  record,  you  find  it  there,  —  and  told  him  that 


30 

if  anything  happened  to  her  sister  to  send  her  word,  and  she  would 
come  and  get  her.  They  sent  her  some  letters  ;  but  when  her  sister 
died  they  did  not  notify  lier  of  the  death,  and  all  the  time  she  was 
]?vuig  at  the  same  place.  She  did  not  hear  of  the  death  until  some 
three  months  afterwards,  and  tlien  she  heard  of  it  from  an  acquaint- 
ance, wlio  had  been  at  Tewksbury  and  heard  of  her  sister's  death. 
And  the  unhappy  woman  was  never  informed  of  her  loss  so  that  she 
could  get  licr  sister's  i^'maius,  because  the  body  was  wortli  $15  or  $1G 
to  Tom  Marsh,  Jr. 

The  chairman.  —  Now  you  arc  out  of  the  record,  Governor.  There 
is  no  evidence  that  her  body  went  to  any  medical  school,  tliat  I 
x'emcmber. 

Governor  Butler.  —  Pardon  me,  sir;  let  us  see.  The}"  claim  that, 
by  the  law,  th;.>y  had  a  right  to  any  body  tliat  was  not  called  for ; 
that  tlicy  had  a  right  to  send  sucli  body  to  Harvard,  and  to  receive 
for  the  same  815,  and  OlG  when  the}'  were  sent  to  tlic  Boston  School  of 
Medicine.  Tiien  tlie  moment  — if  after  24  hours  from  death — a  body 
was  not  called  for  it  was  worth  $15  if  carried  to  the  Harvard  Medical 
School,  and  $16  if  carried  to  either  of  the  other  ones.  I  don't  care 
where  it  did  go,  mine  was  the  correct  proposition  ;  tliat  was  the  com- 
mercial value  of  Charlotte  Anderson's  body,  and  that  is  what  the 
corpse  was  worth  for  him  to  take  to  Harvard,  and  there  is  no  record  of 
burial  in  that  case ;  and  also  let  me  say  in  passing  that  there  is  not  a 
singb  burial  recorded  in  the  books,  and  they  will  make  my  state- 
ment good.  There  is  a  record  of  funeral  services  over  bodies  and 
1)loek8  of  wood,  when  the  bodies  have  gone  to  Harvard  and  else- 
where. 

If  there  were  nothing  else  but  this  case  of  Charlotte  Anderson,  I 
appeal  to  the  fathers,  mothers,  brothers,  and  sisters  of  this  Common- 
wealth, if  one  case  of  such  action  toward  a  poor,  sorrowing  sister, 
injured  in  the  iVjstitution  for  which  you  and  I  are  responsible,  is  not 
enough  to  turn  such  management  out,  as  did  one  "who  spake  as 
never  man  spake,"  with  a  whip  of  small  cords?     (Applause.) 

But  L't  us  pass  from  this,  for  I  must  hurr}-  on.  Now,  I  want,  to 
say  one  word  about  ^liss  ICva  Bowen.  She  has  been  the  target  for 
Vjvery  prurient-minded  rascal  in  the  Commonwcaltii  since  she  came  on 
to  this  stand.  She  was  a  girl  adopted  by  a  rich  father  who  loved 
her,  even  unto  death.  She  was  the  product  of  one  of  our  schook* ; 
perfectly  educated  at  fifteen,  writing  a  most  beau ti Ail  hand.  She  was 
taught  in  the  Normal  Art  School,  where  they  model  nude  figures  in 
clay.*     If  she  had  prurient  notions  when  she  was  fifteen  years  old, 

*  The  report  of  a  committee  of  investigation  of  a  Republican  Legislature  of 
that  school  in  18h2,  savs:  "From  its  (the  Normal  Art  School)  original  and 
•ostensible   design    it   has  wideljf  departtid.     How,   for   instauce,  tcacl.iug  water 


3 


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31 

our  teachings  are  responsible  for  them.  "We  should  not  have  sent  her 
to  such  a  State  institution.  If  we  liad  sent  her  to  a  good  old  orthodox 
school  she  niiglit  have  been  a  good  girl  now.  We  taught  her  imagina- 
tion before  we  enlightened  her  conscience.  If  she  is  a  bad  woman  is 
not  the  Art  School  of  the  Commonwealth  responsible  for  it?*  This 
is  wh3',  when  she  was  brought  in  contact  with  the  man  who  seduced 
her,  she  being  then  but  a  girl  of  lo  years,  she  could  not  resist  temp- 
tation. Mr.  Brown  has  tolil  you  that  she  told  me  who  was  the  fatiier 
of  her  child.  lie  did  not  know  that,  and  3'et  he  who  states  what  he 
don't  know  to  be  true,  has  a  place  among  people  for  whom  there 
ought  to  be  a  "  lake  of  fire  and  brimstone."  Now,  I  want  to  say 
l«3re  that  as  he  has  attempted  to  implicate  a  man  by  name,  she  never 
did  tell  me  who  the  father  of  her  cliild  was,  and  what  is  more,  she 
was  true  to  him  as  it  was  put  in  evidence,  that  her  fatiier  said  tliat  he 
thought  her  tempter  had  too  much  influence  over  her,  and  he  tried  to 
get  her  awa}*  from  him.  The  defence  put  an  old  woman  on  to  the 
stand,  who  testified  that  Eva  Bowcn's  father  told  her  that  a  man  of 
high  social  position  was  liis  daughter's  seducer.  A  man  next  to  the 
Governor ;  whether  he  was  above  or  below  I  don't  care,  it  was  before 
my  day.  (Laugliter.)  Now,  Mr.  Chairman,  according  to  that 
woman's  testimony,  Eva  Bowon's  father  told  her  that  his  daughter's 
seducer  was  a  man  who  had  l.irgo  inducnce  and  a  higli  social  standing. 
Wlien  I  asked  what  his  name  was,  the  woman  suddenly  forgot  what 
that  name  was,  or  she  swore  she  had  forgotten  it.  She  lied,  because 
that  is  a  tiling  such  a  woma'.i  never  forgets — a  scandal.  (Laughter.) 
Tliere  is  no  trouble  about  that.  She  suddenly  forgot  wliat  the  name 
was.  I  called  over  the  names  of  the  piesideuts,  but  elie  could  not 
remember  what  the  name  was,  and  that  i3  all  I  did  about  it.  I  would 
not  foster  a  scandal  of  that  sort  about  any  man  of  high  or  low  social 
position.  The  girl  ran  away  from  her  father's  house  for  the  purpose 
of  having  an  abortion  performed.  She  was  found  there,  brought 
back  and  s.'ut  to  the  Oak  Street  Home,  and  upon  the  testimony  of 
the  physi.rian  at  that  Home,  she  was  free  from  any  diseaoc  when  she 
went  to  Tewksbury. 

And  there  she  tells  a  story  that  will  make  the  very  rafters  cry  out. 

colors,  modelling  in  clay  and  modcIUng  from  jliie  nude  human  figure  lias  any 
connection  with  indusliial  education,  it  would  be  ditticuit  to  imagine."  —  House 
l>oc.  No  :i;50,  l«b2. 

*  After  this  argument  was  published  in  tlie  papers,  a  pcntleman  for  vvljom  I 
h<tve  the  highest  respect  told  me  that  Kva  Howen  was  seduced  Lefoi-e  she  camo 
to  tlie  Art  School.  I  said  I  knew  the  date  of  the  birth  of  her  child;  bring  me 
the  books  showing  the  date  of  her  entry  into  that  school,  and  if  I  am  wnmg  I 
will.fully  correct  it.     I  have  waited  Ihref  weiks,  but  have  not  seen  the  books !^ 

'  Slncp  llii»  note  w«»  m  type  I  hsvc  wen  the  books.  The  date  of  her  entry  was  NfHreb  17, 
1R7J,  and  iver  child  vna  tiorn  Mareh  2«,  IS'.i.  I  am  told  that  «he  did  not  rcnaiii  loni,'  enough  in 
the  Hchool  to  reach  the  cla««  of  modelling  in  clay,  and  tiiat  there  wa»,  at  that  time  no  modelling 
txom  nude  Uriiifi  human  ligiire*  in  day.  nor  since  that  lime,  wiih  the  conaent  of  the  Kovernment  f» 
the  Bcbool.    There  was,  bowaver,  ouring  ibat  time,  drawicg'  >f  the  human  form  'n  her  cluM. 


32 

Now,  what  object  did  she  have  to  come  here  and  lie?  She  had 
told  her  story  to  a  gentleman,  not  her  friend  in  the  sense  that  the 
prurient  imagination  of  counsel  tells  it,  and  he  wrote  me  an  account 
just  as  sbe  told  it  here.  It  was  not  a  story  she  had  made  up,  and 
cver^-  word  of  that  story  is  true,  and  has  been  conlirmed,  and  the 
only  thing  {gainst  it  is  in  that  book  made  up  in  the  office  of  the 
Towkshury  almshouso,  where  it  says  three  times  over  that  she  had 
syphilis.  And  the  man  who  made  the  entr\-  won't  swear  wiiether  he 
made  the  entry  about  her  from  the  Tewksbury  books  or  whether  he 
took  it  from  her  own  mouth.     Everj-whi're  she  is  corroborated. 

She  said  her  father  loved  her,  but  that  he  felt  her  disgrace  deeply. 
He  was  under  the  control  of  the  stepmother,  and  the  stepmother 
made  him  drive  her  away  fiom  his  house.  And  he  said  that  at  that 
very  time  he  was  sending  her  money,  and  ho  wrote  to  hor  through 
the  nurse,  saying  that  it  would  be  better  for  the  family  if  she  were 
dead.  Tliat  statement  was  tortured  into  a  statement  that  he  wanted 
her  killed.  The  poor  girl  never  said  so  ;  that  was  what  she  said  was 
in  the  L'ttcr.  Mrs.  Rowell  was  the  nurse,  and  she  read  that  letter. 
She  is  not  dead.  She  received  and  read  that  letter,  and  she  has  got 
it  for  aught  you  and  I  know.  Eva  Bowen  says  that  was  what  was  in 
the  letter.  What  interpretation  Nellie  Marsh  put  upon  it  —  and  she 
was  the  doctress  of  the  Marsh  family  —  God  knows.*  The  girl  says 
that  im:nediately  after  she  was  given  something,  whatever  it  was, 
that  almost  i)oisoncd  her,  and  Mrs.  Rowell  fiew  to  the  rescue  and  gave 
her  an  antidote  in  order  to  save  her  life,  although  she  vomited  large 
quantities  of  black  stuff  up.  No  physician,  no  nurse,  nobody  from 
Tewksbury  denies  that. 

Now,  then,  we  hear  a  great  deal  about  this  girl  being  unchaste, 
nothing  else.  Well,  bo  it  so  ;  she  is  the  product  of  our  education. 
We  have  no  business  to  take  a  girl  of  Gfteen  years,  just  at  the  turn 
of  life,  and  put  her  to  school  to  model  nude  figures  in  clay.  We 
simply  excite  her  imagination  until  some  rascal  can  take  advantage 
of  hor  passions  against  her  conscience,  and  I  told  you  in  my 
annual  mc'ssage,  before  I  heard  of  Eva  Bowen,  such  would  be  the 
result  of  such  teachings. 

Now  I  come  to  the  last  matter  that  I  wish  to  discuss  with  you, 
and  I  will  do  that  i:i  the  very  few  minutes  left  to  me.  I  have  told 
you  how  they  treated  the  living  ;  I  will  now  show  you  what  they  did 
with  the  dead. 

Let  us  pause  here. 

This  institution  has  been  running  ever  since  1854,  a  quarter  of  a 

»Slio  waa  the  woman  whom  tho  Board  of  State  Cliaritiei  charged  with 
•aufing  the  deaths  of  soyen. 


33 

century  of  it  under  the  Marshes,  and  there  is  no  pretence  of  any 
record  having  been  kept  as  to  "what  has  been  done  'with  the  dead 
from  that  day  to  thij,  except  for  the  last  ten  years  out  of  the 
twenty-nine  j'cars  in  which  there  has  been  a  memorandum  book, 
whicli  was  purloined  by  Tom  Marsh,  Jr.,  and  that  is  for  onl}'  ten 
years ;  there  is  not  the  slightest  record  pretended  to  be  kept,  and 
there  has  not  been  any  bond  whatever  for  a  large  portion  of  the 
time  of  any  form,  and  tliosc  given  the  last  ten  years  arc  of  no 
consoquenc2  whatever,  only  a  hundred-dollar  bond,  and  the  colleges 
havi;!  all  been  snpi)lied  from  it,  and  eveiy  one  cl?c  has  been  sui^plied 
T/it!i  dead  bodies  from  the  State  almshouse  in  this  loose  and^ illegal 
way. 

"What  do  thej'  do  ?  Confessedly  now  be^'ond  the  rcj.ch  of  con- 
jecture or  disputed  tcstin:ony.  It  is  beyond  dispute  tliat  they  take 
cvcrybotly  that  tlieir  friends  don't  call  for  —  and  that's  a  very  small 
portion  —  and  send  them  to  Harvard  or  other  medical  schools,  or 
•dispose  of  them  as  they  clioose.  But  before  they  do  so,  thc^'  call  a 
priest  and  he  says  funeral  services  over  the  remains  of  tliosc  that  are 
to  be  cut  up,  — that's  undisputed,  — and  then  they  arc  i)ut  in  a  grave 
and  afterwards  dug  up  and  carried  of,  or  cUc  they  are  put  ia  the 
dead-house  and  then  carried  off.  And  Avherc?  To  be  put  under  tho 
dissecting  knife,  and  then,  in  tlie  early  times — for  the  first  ten  years 
—  v/hat  remained  of  their  bodies,  instead  of  being  buried,  were  thrown 
into  a  vault,  where  the  cols  and  lobsters  ato  them.  It  is  the  luidis- 
putcd  testimony  of  Dr.  Dean  that  the  small  parts  of  the  body  were 
commonly  known  in  the  dissecting-room  as  "eel  bait."' 

Ao  I  have  said,  over  these  mortal  remains,  once  encasing  an  im- 
mortal Boul,  the  authorities  at  Tewksbury  paid  Ol  each  from  tho 
public  treasury  to  liavc  the  last  sad  religious  rights  and  offices  held 
T/hcn  they  were  to  be  sent  to  the  dissecting  knife,  and  a  portion 
of  them  made  food  for  fishes,  and  otiicr  portions  skinned  and 
tanned  as  articles  of  laxur}'.  Imagine  the  mummery !  The  holy 
priest,  with  eyes  reverently  raised  to  God,  consigning  "  ashes  to 
ashes  and  dust  to  dust,"  when  those  who  employed  him  knew  that 
the  ritual  should  bo  "  dust"  to  the  dissecting  table  and  "  ashes"  for 
food  for  lobsters  and  eels  ! 

And  the  reason  claimed  why  these  bodies  should  bo  so  disposed 
of  h  t'.jat  they  were  to  be  buried  at  the  public  expense,  if  burying 
them  should  l>e  absolut  ly  incurred.  Will  the  good  people,  the  reli- 
gions people  of  this  Commonwealth,  sanction  sucii  proceedings?  Do 
they  not  shock  and  cause  to  vibrato  with  horror  every  nerve  and  pul- 
sation of  the  heart?  Arc  such  funeral  services  not  mummeries,  dese- 
crating tlie  dead  and  bringing  into  contempt  our  holy  religion,  a  vilo 
parod}-  upon  its  sacrament,  and  an  argument  against  the  resurrection 


34 

of  the  body !  No  tribe  of  savages  has  yet  been  discovered  iu  the 
farthest  territory  north,  or  under  the  burning  smis  of  the  equator,  or 
in  the  desolation  of  the  South,  where  the  remains  of  tlie  dead  arc 
not  reverently  treated,  save  in  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts, 
in  the  so-called  interests  of  science.  If  I  can  succeed,  cither  by 
having  proper  legislation  made  or  arousing  the  people  by  an  exhibi- 
tion of  these  horrors,  in  stopping  this  practice  only,  I  shall  be  more 
than  repaid  for  my  arduous  labors  in  this  investigation  for  the  last 
four  months. 

They  took  no  care  of  the  sacred  dead  whatever,  and  that  has  been 
going  on,  and  no  man  has  anv  account  of  these  dead  except  Tom 
Marsh,  and  he  won't  produce  it,  and  therefore  we  are  here  without 
any  account,  and  wc  have  no  account  even  of  those  which  have  gone 
to  the  dissecting  knife  or  to  the  grave. 

There  i3  not  a  single  body  gone  to  a  physician  that  has  been  ac- 
counted for  since  the  institution  has  been  run  —  not  one.  They  do 
not  protend  to  account  for  them  in  their  trustees'  report,  which  has 
been  produced  here.  The  5S5  bodies  accounted  for  in  that  reporl  all 
went  to  thj  colleges.  V*'c  have  proved  that  the}"  did  deliver  outside 
the  college  in  several  cases,  at  bast.  These  are  uudisputcd  facts, 
and  there  is  nobod}'  that  wi'.l  question  that  part  of  it.  Now,  I  put  it 
to  3'ou,  gentlemen,  that  n^nthcr  one  of  you  knew  that  those  startling 
thing3  wore  going  on  until  you  got  into  Ihii  investigation.  Is  this 
the  way  3'ou  would  have  the  bodies  of  the  poor  treated?  I  would 
give  them  up  to  scionco  if  need  be,  but  keep  a  record  of  their  where- 
abouts. Let  us  know  what  has  become  of  the  children  of  the  State, 
.  liotle  and  great.  Now,  how  has  this  been  done?  All  tliis  has  been 
done  without  any  proper  account  or  authority.  Nourse,  the  trustee, 
swore  that  he  made  a  verbal  a[)pointment  of  Tom  Marsh  as  agent,  to 
^  dispose  of  dead  bodies,  ton  years  ago.  No  appointment  can  bo 
\  found  in  the  records,  and  he  never  asked  Tom  for  an  accouut  of  his 
doings  in  this  matter.  Last  September,  Noui-sc  says,  Tom  filed  an 
account,  which  was  not  examined  till  after  this  invest'gation  was 
ordered.  Now,  that  account  h  a  false  one.  Divide  it  by  tlic  number 
of  bodies,  and  you  will  find  Tom  Marsh  says  that  ho  got  $14  and 
some  cents  a  body.  It  was  proved  that  the  colleges  outside  of  Har- 
vard gave  $1G,  and  go  that  account  is  a  false  one  on  its  face.  Har- 
vard gave  815  and  others  8lG  a  body.  The  two  the  doctor  from  the 
insane  asylum  brought  away  arc  not  in  thnt  account;  they  don't 
belong  there.  Now,  all  this  is  undisputed,  Now,  what  did  Dr.  Dix- 
wcll  cay ?  He  said,  when  I  called  him  under  a  subp^na,  he  l)a\ing 
sworn  before  the  grand  jury  to  the  same  thing:  "  I  was  at  Harvard 
Medical  School,  and  was  an  enthusiastic  student  of  anatomy  (I  nra 
not  giviag  the  words,  but  Bubstaucc),  and  I  had  rather  dissect  whole 


A  piece  of  tanned  skin  from  the  breast  of  Charles  J.  Ekland.  a  Swede, 
on  "which  was  tattooed  in  India  ink  and  cochineal,  a  picture  of  the  Oucillxion, 

together  with  his  name  and  date  of  birth.     Pho.  by .      [See  Ilecord, 

pages  002  to  1042  ] 


35 

babies  than  parts  of  adults.  1  fitted  myself  up  with  a  dissecting- 
room  in  Cambridge,  at  my  fatlier's  house,  and  took  infant  bodies 
there  to  dissect,  and  I  know  other  students  who  bought  them  ;  so, 
taking  what  I  knew,  there  were  I.0O  to  200  bodies  that  we  got  of 
Andrews.  We  dissected  the  bodies  required  by  our  lessons  on  the  col- 
lege dissecting-tablo.  These  lessons  must  he  the  dissection  of  adults 
at  that  time  (it  has  been  changed  since),  and  we  got  these  infants  of 
Andrews,*  bought  for  $3,  and  the  very  best  specimens  for  So,"  and 
he  said  then  that  he  got  tliein  at  Tewksbur}- ;  I  doubt  whether  he  got 
them  all  at  Tewksbury,  thougli  the  death-rate  was  sufficient  to  supply 
liim.  Dixwfll  has  been  interested  himself  in  this  investigation,  and 
he  is  a  respectable  physician.  He  came  hero  against  his  will,  as  he 
went  before  the  grand  jury,  and  ho  there  stated  these  facts,  and  no 
man  has  contradicted  them,  although  they  had  all  been  known  for 
years.  Thc}'  now  como  here  and  insist  that  there  were  never  any 
infants  on  the  dissecting-table.  Be  it  so.  Dr.  Dixwell  said  he  got 
the  bodies  of  Andrews  and  paid  for  them.  Now,  I  put  on  two  men, 
who  testified  that  they  dissected  infants  there,  and  one  infant  so  dis- 
sected counted  as  one  of  the  parts  required  to  be  dissected  b}"  the 
college  lessons. 

Every  institution  has  bad  men  in  it,  and  every  institution  has 
good  ones.  When  Christ,  aided  by  Omniscience,  too,  chose  twelve 
disciples,  he  chose  one  who  had  a  devil..  I  don't  believe  that  the 
Harvard  Medical  School  a\'erages  any  better  than  that.  The  defence 
brought  three  or  four  of  these  people  here  to  swear  that  nobody  ever 
dissected  a  body  there,  and  nobody  ever  desired  to  so  do.  That  is 
entirely  contradicted  now  by  the  testimony  of  four  or  five  witnesses. 
They  said  also  that  there  never  was  but  one  body  at  a  time  iu  that 
dead-house.  They  swore  that  —  two  at  the  most.  I  had  two  men 
here  yesterday  —  entirely  outside  men  —  who  said  they  Saw  dead 
bodies,  ten  on  the  tables,  and  in  the  dead-room  twelve  to  twenty 
more,  piled  up  like  cordwood,  higgledy-piggledy,  tiie  dead  infants 
between  the  adults'  legs. 

Now,  then,  there  is  another  piece  of  evidence.  One  of  our 
witnesses  was  Chase.  Who  is  Cliase?  He  was  the  sub-agent  for 
these  dead  bodies,  appointed  by  Thomas  J.  Marsh,  and  lie  swears 
that  he  heard  words  between  Miss  Manning  and  Marsh  because  he 
wouldn't  pa}-  her  for  the  iufants  that  were  put  in  the  trunks.  And 
then,  after  keeping  us  here  for  days  to  listen  to  the  swearing  of  these 
doctors  that  there  were  no  children's  bodies  used  in  Harvard,  the 
defence  puts  in  the  report  of  the  trustees  that  there  were  thirty-six. 

To  meet  his  damning  evidence  they  make  an  attack  upon  Dixwell, 


*  Andrews  had  chrir<je  of  the  deacWiouse  at  Harvard  Medical  College. 


36 

as  they  do  upon  cven-bocly  else.  I  brought  eight  ns  respectable 
people  as  there  arc  oft  earth,  headed  b}-  Mr.  Wcudell  Phillips  who 
had  knowu  DixwoU  from  a  boy  up,  who  told  you  that  Dr.  Dixwell 
was  honest,  and  no  man  ever  knew  an3thing  to  the  contrary.  Even 
Fi-othingham,  whom  I  brought  hero  —  he  had  a  quarrel  with  Dixwell, 
and  I  brought  him  liere  purposely,  knowing  that  lie  was  against  me, 
because  I  knew  that  I  held  hi:n  by  the  throat  by  means  of  the  letter 
he  had  written  to  Dixwell,  wherein  he  said  that  he  knew  not  where 
he  could  find  such  another  efficient  worker  with  him  in  the  benevolent 
Bocietv  of  which  Frothingham  was  an  executive  officer.  I  just  let 
Frothingham  loose,  because  I  had  a  string  by  which  I  could  hold  him 
back  just  as  I  would  a  prattling  parrot.  And  this  man  said  that  the 
only  fault  he  found  with  Dixwell  ATa3  that  he  was  too  charitable  to 
the  Russian  Jews,  and  thoy  quarreled  over  that.  Dixwell  says ; 
"  Very  wcjl ;  if  I  have  paid  out  too  much  of  the  society's  money  to  the 
Jews,  I  wont  take  my  salary."  But  Frothingham  beggeddiim  to  take 
it  and  begged  him  to  come  back.  Then  after  all  these  came  Mr. 
Wendell  Phillips.  I  have  no  occasion  to  enter  upon  anj-  eulogy  of 
him.  He  swore  that  lu  had  known  Dixwell,  egg  and  bird,  father  and 
mother,  sister  aiid  uncle,  from  a  child,  and  there  was  no  man  in  the 
world  wliose  word  he  would  trust  sooner  than  his,  and  that  he  never 
had  an  idea  of  thj  lunacy  with  which  Dixwell  was  charged.  Lunacy 
is  the  remedy  which  these  doctors  use  whenever  a  rich  man  wants  to 
get  rid  of  an  old  wife  and  marry  a  young  woman.  They  swear  the 
old  lady  is  a  lunatic  and  get  her  into  tlie  insane  hospital,  and  she 
dies  heart-broken  there.  Not  a  new  weapon,  this  charge  of  lunacy. 
I  have  been  battling  this  infernal  id?a  of  everybody's  being  a  lunatic, 
whom  it  is  desirable  to  imprison  to  get  their  [)roperty,  for  forty  years. 
The  chief  of  police,  who  had  known  Dr.  Dixwell  always,  trusted  this 
lunatic,  as  they  call  him,  when  lie  had  the  bullet  taken  from  his  arm, 
and  the  oil  experienced  physician  stood  by  and  allowed  Dixwell  to 
use  the  knife.  Now,  Dixwell  cither  told  tho  trutii  or  he  did  not  tell 
the  truth.  If  he  did  not  tell  the  truth,  Thomas  Marsh's  memorandum 
books  will  show  it.  You  have  no  riglit  to  say  Dixwell  don't  tell  the 
ti'uth  whib  they  keep  back  the  record  which  will  show  it  if  he  does 
not.  Dr.  Dixwell  swore  to  these  facts  years  ago,  when  nobody 
claims  he  was  crazy.  He  must  have  then  sworn  falsel_v  through  mere 
devilish  spite.  And  yet  nobody  claims  that  Harvard  has  ever  done 
him  any  wrong.  Tiierefore,  I  take  his  testimony,  and  you  are  bound 
to  t;ike  it  in  the  absence  of  the  i)roper  record,  in  contradiction  of  it, 
which  they  keep  back  in  spit.;  of  your  order  rbpeated  over  and  over 
again  to  bring  them  bi'i'ore  you. 

You  have  heard  nothing  in  the  last  month  from  the  satanic  press, 
and  if  an3body  wants  to  know  why  I  give  it  that  name,  it  is  because 


the  skm  or  a  woman  in  tne  lougn,  dou  yei  curneu  fcniuuiu.  xiijuico  ^,  v^,  , ,  ^  ...i.*  ./,  p.^.^^,  «» 
skin  cut  out  of  the  slipper  previously  referred  to.  Figure  10,  piece  of  negro  .skin,  cut  from  the 
beily,  showing  the  navel.  Figure  11,  another  piece  of  skin  cut  from  a  colored  person.  Photo, 
by— 1 .     [iSee  Record,  pages  437  to  1042.] 


37 

Satan  is  the  father  of  lies.  (Merriment.)  You  have  heard  in  these 
papers  about  Iiuraan  skins  nothing  except  that  the  Governor  has 
shown  onl}^  the  f  I'ealc  of  a  student.  (Producing  a  number  of  tanned 
human  skins.)  N'ow,  there  is  a  whole  sliin  from  one  woman's  back, 
from  one  tannery.  I  haven't  given  that  away  as  a  relic,  have  I? 
This  is  from  a  negro's  belly,  from  another  tannery.  There  is  a  shoe 
I  took  off  of  a  shoemaker's  bench.  Here  is  the  vamp  and  there  is 
the  counter.  Wl.at  were  they  cut  from?  Cut  from  this  piece  of  the 
skin  taken  from  :•.  woman's  breast  you  see  here,  Wh}'  didn't  they 
cut  closer?  Because  here  close  to  the  toe  of  the  vamp  is  the  nipple 
of  the  woman,  as  you  see,  and  it  would  not  be  so  strong  and  smooth 
it  they  cut  any  closer.  All  these  are  traced  to  Harvard  and  Tewks- 
bury. 

Here  is  anothei  piece  of  woman's  skin,  tanned  of  a  different  color, 
the  difference  only  is  that  one  is  tanned  with  sumac  and  another  with 
hemlock  bark.  Yoii  have  here  still  another  piece  from  another  tan- 
nery'. There  is  still  another  which  I  offer  here,  where  a  man  who  was 
at  Tewksbury  bad  this  pictm-e  of  the  crucifixion  tattooed  with  India 
ink  over  his  hei  rt.  I  offered  it  in  evidence,  but  the  committee  ruled 
it  out.* 

Now,  this  tannirfg  and  use  of  human  skins  has  come  to  be  an  in- 
dustry. What  do  you  suppose  people  want  of  them?  Well,  there 
are  old  men  and  young  men  of  jaded  passions,  worn  out  prematurely 
by  their  Vices,  aud  l£  they  can  put  their  feet'  in  slippers  made  from  a 
woman's  breast,  perhaps  they  can  feed  their  imaginations.!     This  is 


*  C.  J.  Eklund,  whose  name  and  date  of  birth,  and  picture  of  the  crucifixion, 
is  tattooed  on  this  piece  of  human  skin,  was  borne  on  the  registry  at  Tewksbury 
almshouse,  No.  55,140,  in  the  year  1878.  The  same  registry  shows  that  he  died 
there  in  August,  1879.  A  witness  was  produced  before  the  committee  to  testify 
that  he  had  seen  this  picture  and  name  printed  on  his  breast,  when  Eklund  was 
in  bathing  with  him.  The  committee  refused  the  evidence  by  a  party  vote, 
because  it  was  not  in  rebuttal  of  thl;  evidence  of  the  Marshes  that  no  piece  of 
human  skLi  ever  came  from  this ! ! !     See  Report  of  Evidence,  p.  00. 

t  If  these  slippers,  part  of  which  were  taken  from  a  work  bench,  and  the 
mate  of  wliich,  finislied,  could  be  seen  on  exhibition  in  a  window  of  a  store  in 
Washington  street,  Boston,  during  the  investigation,  were  not  made  to  be  worn, 
what  were  they  made  for?  The  writers  of  scientific  works  on  such  subjects 
tell  us. 

The  question  has  been  asked  many  times,  What  could  any  man  want  such 
shoes  and  pieces  of  human  skin  for  1  The  answer  is  given  in  the  argument,  and 
shows  that  human  depraviry  has  a  demand  for  such  things.  Shall  the  people  not 
be  told  of  this  horrible  trade,  in  order  that  it  may  be  stopped  1  Can  there  be 
"reform"  cf  any  practice  so  shocking,  alas,  as  this  1 

The  Republican  legislature  refused,  however,  to  pass  a  bill  presented  by  the 
minority  of  the  committee,  making  it  a  crime  to  carry  on  the  business  of  tanning 
the  skins  of  human  bodies. 

i 


38 

no  uew  thing,  this  cutting  up  of  a  human  body  and  skinning  it ;  but  it 
was  not  formerly  with  the  idea  to  put  it  on  the  feet  of  the  aristocracy. 
Let  us  see  how  it  was  a  few  years  ago.  I  hold  in  my  hand  Carlyle's 
"  French  Revolution."     On  page  354  Carlyle  says  :  — 

"Still  deeper  into  one's  heart  goes  that  tannery  at  Meudon,  not 
mentioned  among  other  miracles  of  tanning!  'At  Maudon,'  says 
Montgaillard,  with  considerable  calmness,  '  there  was  a  tannery  of 
human  skins  —  such  of  the  guillotined  worth  flaying  —  of  which  per- 
fectly good  wash  leather  was  made,'  for  breeches  and  ether  uses. 
The  skin  of  the  men,  he  remarks,  was  .-<penor  U'  toughness  (con- 
sistence) and  quality  to  shamoy ;  th^t  cf  the  won.sn  was  good  for 
almost  nothing,  being  so  soft  in  texture  !  History,  loo-Ting  back  over 
cannibalism,  through  '  Purchas'  Pilgrims'  and  all  eai-'y  and  late 
records,  will  perhaps  f.nd  no  terrestrial  cannibalism  of  a  sort  on  the 
whole  so  detestable.  It  is  a  manufactured  soft  feeiiiig,  quietly 
elegant  sort ;  a  sort  perfide  !  Alas,  then,  is  man's  civili^.otion  only  a 
wrappage,  through  which  the  savage  nature  of  him  cau  still  burst, 
infernal  as  ever?  Nature  still  makes  him;  and  has  an  irfernal  in 
her  as  well  as  a  celestial." 

It  is  paupers'  skins  that  are  tanned  now  for  the  slip  ers  of  the 
aristocrats.  It  was  my  lord  and  my  lady's  skins  that  were  tinned  then 
for  the  shoes  and  breeches  of  the  paupers.  It  is  j-our  d'ity,  gentle- 
men, and  mine,  to  see  that  the  wheel  don't  go  round  once  again,  ii 
for  no  other  reason  than  to  save  our  own  skins,  for  one  ijido  won't 
stand  skinning  always.  It  is  the  part  of  statesmanship  so  to  govern 
that  the  people  will  not  in  revenge  for  our  trcatineiit  of  them  skin  us. 

The  Harvard  doctors  came  here  and  swore  that  there  never  was 
such  a  thing  as  a  negro's  skin  at  Harvard.  I  have  Drake's  history 
of  Harvard  in  my  hand,  in  whi  jh  a  writer  gives  ?.  picture  cf  Harvard 
library  as  it  existed  in  1759.  I  ./ill  read  It;  "The  library  :3  very 
large  and  well  stored  with  bo-ics,  but  r^wch  abused  by  frequent 
use.  The  repositories  of  ci -.-osities,  which  >ras  not  over  well 
stocked.  Saw  2  Human  Skel  'tons,  a  piece  of  Neigro's  J  icle  tan'd, 
&c.  Horns  and  bones,  fishes,  skins  of  different  animals  stuff'd,  &c. 
The  skull  of  a  Famous  Indian  "Wanior,  where  was  als':)  the  moddeli 
of  the  Boston  Man  of  "\Yarr  of  40  guns  compleatly  rig'd,"'  &c. 

It  seems  they  have  been  iit  it  for  150  years. 

It  is  an  old  trick  of  theirs,  and  I  am  determined  to  put  a  stop  to 
it  somehow,  and  I  want  you  lo  help  me.  And  if  we  hare  done  no 
other  good  thing  by  this  investigation,  we  have  called  tlu  atteufcion 
of  the  people  and  the  world  to  this  infernal  cannibalism.  No  matter 
who  did  it.  We  shall  stop  it  now.  It  is  said  that  it  was  done  yv'.ih.- 
out  the  knowledge  of  the  professors.  Let  them  be  more  careful,  then. 
It  was  said  in  the  newspapers  that  the  price  of  human  skins  was 


39 

greatly  raised  because  I  had  stopped  the  supply.     If  I  have  done  no 
other  good  than  that,  I  have  done  so  much  at  least. 

Now,  I  am  obliged  to  my  brother  for  putting  in  the  record  of  the 
Soldiers'  Home,  and  I  cannot,  in  the  very  few  minutes  I  have  left  to 
me,  do  better  than  to  call  your  attention  to  it.  He  said  that  it  cost 
three  dollars  and  a  few  cents  a  week  to  take  care  of  the  soldiers,  and 
he  wonders  why  it  should  cost  so  much,  if  I  think  I  can  carrj'  on  the 
State  almshouse  so  cheap. 

lu  the  first  place,  look  at  the  per  cent,  of  what  birth  the  inmates 
were  ;  58^  per  cent,  of  the  soldiers  in  the  disabled  soldiers'  homes  are 
of  foreign  birth.  Before  you  go  to  throwing  ridicule  ,  a  the  foreign 
born,  let  me  tell  you  that  you  had  better  look  into  tne  question  of 
who  fought  your  battles.  Some  of  us  staj'ed  at  home  and  pressed 
soft  cushions  and  skinned  paupers,  while  these  foreigners  so  much 
sneered  at  were  fighting  our  battles. 

A  few  words  as  to  the  food  of  this  Soldiers'  Home.  I  read  from 
the  record.  It  took  278  turkej's  for  their  Thanksgiving  dinner,  and 
their  last  "  pot-pie"  required  34  sheep,  15|-  barrels  of  potatoes  andi»2 
barrels  of  flour.  During  the  3'ear  the}'  eat  758  head  of  cattle,  1,659 
head  of  sheep,  3,714  barrels  of  flour,  15,744  dozen  eggs,  154,932 
pounds  of  butter,  G9,289  pounds  of  coffee,  57,941  pounds  of  fish, 
7,950  pounds  of  tea,  10,570  cans  of  tomatoes,  1G,431  pounds  of 
rice,  110,440  pounds  of  sugar,  21,325  pounds  of  prunes,  and  other 
articles  too  numerous  to  mention,  amounting  together  to  the  sum  of 
8204,728.20. 

Now  let  us  see  what  else  they  had.  They  had  clothing  —  every 
one  had  a  regimental  suit.  The}'  had  laundries  ;  they  had  worksliops, 
and  a  total  of  505  employed  in  them  ;  and  the  amount  of  then*  product 
was  $158,766.07.  The  farms  and  gai'dens  have  afibi-ded  emplo}'- 
ment  to  a  large  number  of  inmates,  and  return  a  fair  revenue  to  the 
home  after  deducting  the  compensation  paid  to  the  men  for  their 
labor  and  defraying  all  the  other  expenses.  The  total  value  f  the 
products  for  the  year  were  $32,150.18,  and  the  net  profits  $6,447.20. 
From  the  sale  of  flowers  the  Central  Branch  realized  this  year 
$1,489.50.  The  chief  gai-dener  reports  64,510  plants,  shrubs,  etc., 
on  hand,  which  he  reports  to  be  worth  $8,880.65.  The  cigar  sh6p 
gave  emploj'ment  to  ninet}'  men,  who  earned  $6,160.15,  and  made 
1,858,515  cigars,  which  sold  for  $33,347.41,  and  realized  to  the 
home  a  net  profit  of  $2,901.15.  Eighteen  men  with  knitting  machines 
made  2,069  dozen  pairs  of  stockings,  which  realized  a  total  of 
$7,391.46,  and  a  profit  of  $1,478.26.  One  disabled  soldier  made  161 
dozen  brooms,  which,  after  paying  for  material  and  his  labor,  re- 
turned a  net  profit  of  $203.12.  The  shoe  shop  turned  out  220  pairs 
of  boots  and  286  paii-s  of  shoes,  all  hand  made,  and  with  them  a 


40 

profit  of  $1,256.36,  and  the  tailor  shop  695  garments  made  and  twice 
as  many  more  repaired  to  the  profit  of  the  home  of  $1,435.32,  and  the 
soap  factory  121,599  gallons  of  soft  soap,  and  29,309  pounds  of  hard 
soap,  largely  made  from  material  gotten  from  the  Jvitchens  of  the 
home.  The  total  value  of  the  products  for  the  year  were  $32,750.18, 
and  the  net  profit  $6,447.20.  The  soldiers  have  a  library  of  17,581 
volumes,  and  reading-rooms  supplied  with  all  the  leading  newspapers 
and  magazines  of  the  country.  Now,  then,  for  the  bill  of  fare.  On 
Sunday  —  Breakfast,  boiled  ham,  fried  potatoes,  graham  bread, 
butter,  coffee ;  dinner,  roast  mutton,  potatoes,  turnips,  apple  pie, 
bread,  butter,  coflTee ;  supper,  tomatoes  (stewed),  bread,  butter, 
gingerljread,  tea.  Monday  —  Breakfast,  corned  beef,  potatoes, 
butter,  bread,  coffee ;  dinner,  vegetable  soup,  boiled  beef,  potatoes, 
bread,  crackers ;  supper,  hominy  and  syrup,  biscuit,  butter,  cheese, 
tea.  Tuesday  —  Breakfast,  Irish  stew,  potatoes,  bread,  butter, 
coffee ;  dinner,  pickled  shoulders,  cabbage,  beets,  bread,  butter, 
coffee  ;  supper,  bread,  butter,  apple  sauce,  cookies,  tea.  Wednes- 
day ^— Breakfast,  fried  beef,  fried  onions,  potatoes,  bread,  butter, 
coffee  ;  dinner,  mutton,  pot-pie,  pickles,  graham  bread,  coffee  ;  supper, 
cold  beef,  tomatoes,  bread,  butter,  tea.  Thursday  —  Breakfast, 
pickled  pork  loins,  potatoes,  bread,  butter,  coffee  ;  dinner,  vennicelli 
soup,  boiled  beef,  potatoes,  bread,  crackers  ;  supper,  biscuit,  pearl 
wheat,  syrup,  pickled  onions,  cheese,  tea.  Fridaj-  —  Breakfast, 
mackerel,  fried  onions,  potatoes,  bread,  butter,  coffee ;  supper, 
pickled  beets,  cinnamon  cake,  fruit,  bread,  butter,  tea.  Saturday — 
Breakfast,  beef  fricassee,  bread,  butter,  coffee ;  dinner,  pork  and 
beans,  stewed  parsnips,  bread,  butter,  coffee  ;  supper,  rice  and  sjTup, 
pickles,  biscuit,  butter,  cheese,  tea.  And  that  sort  of  living  for  less 
than  twenty  cents  a  day  and  $1.40  a  week.  Did  not  I  know  whether 
I  could  run  our  almshouse  here  for  $70,000,  as  I  offered  the-  Legisla- 
ture to  do,  instead  of  $93,000  which  it  now  costs  the  State  yearly? 

I  knew  how  cheaply  I  could  run  it  to  a  shaving,  and  thus  save 
$25,000  to  the  taxpayers.  No  trouble  about  it  at  all.  Read  that 
report,  and  then  let  any  man  undertake  to  talk  about  the  waj-  the 
soldiers'  homes  were  carried  on.  I  am  alwaA's  glad  when  I  can  find 
a  fair  opportunity  to  speak  by  the  record  about  these  homes.  They 
were  not  almshouses.  These  men  were  my  old  comrades,  and  these 
homes  were  where  I  meant  they  should  live,  and  where  they  did  live 
as  well  as  I  do,  and  no  man  of  them  ever  complained.  Never  !  And 
whenever  anybody  wants  to  investigate  this  institution,  while  it  was 
under  my  charge,  I  won't  call  an  officer,  I  will  call  no  officer  to  testify 
for  me,  but  I  will  raise  my  hand,  and  will  sa}",  "  My  old  comrades, 
come  here  and  defend  yom-  old  commander,"  and  they  will  clear  out 


41 

from  this  State  House  my  slanderers  so  quick  your  heads  would 
swim. 

And  that  brings  me  to  just  this.  Here  this  almshouse  has  been 
running  for  nearly  thirty  years.  Sixty  odd  thousand  inmates  have 
been  there  and  the  Marshes  have  not  brought  a  single  one  to  say  a 
good  word  for  them,  except  that  vile  libertine  French  Joe.  Not  one. 
They  cannot  find  one  that  has  been  there,  man  or  woman,  sane  or 
insane,  who  will  testify'  that  the  inmates  were  well  treated.  Nobody 
is  crazy  enough  to  say  a  good  word  for  the  Marshes  except  when  the 
Marshes  stand  over  them.  Isn't  that  so  ?  Wouldn't  j'ou  be  ashamed 
to  be  at  the  head  of  an  institution  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  where 
nobody  would  say  a  good  word  for  you  in  j'our  time  of  trial.  You 
were  told  that  these  soldiers'  homes  cost  $1  more  a  week  only  than 
did  the  burnt  rye  coffee,  tea,  bad  beef,  bad  fish,  —  as  they  admitted, 
the  worst  they  could  buy,  all  bone,  — ■  than  did  the  living  at  this  alms- 
house. I  don't  want  these  paupers  to  lose  a,ny  comfort.  Give  me 
charge  of  them,  and  I  will  see  they  are  well  fed,  I  will  give  somebody 
charge  of  them  whom  I  can  direct  and  tell  how  to  do  it  without 
stealing  half  of  it.  I  know  how  much  such  an  institution  will  cost. 
I  know  you  see  whereof  I  affirm. 

There  is  another  matter  in  which  we  have  done  good  in  another 
way.  This  investigation  has  brought  out  through  all  the  land  painful 
facts,  and  has  turned  everybody's  attention  to  them  from  Maine  to 
Georgia.  Every  week  I  see  where  some  almshouse  is  being  investi- 
gated. In  the  Tribune  of  yesterda}'  there  is  this:  "If  General 
Butler  were  Governor  of  Texas,  he  might  perhaps  find  a  legitimate 
object  of  attack  in  the  Dallas  county  poor- farm,  the  alleged  brutal 
management  of  which  is  said  to  be  creating  intense  excitement  and 
indignation.  Already  there  are  reports  of  a  man  clubbed  to  death 
and  a  little  girl  beaten  with  a  fence  rail,  not  to  mention  one  death 
through  neglect,  constant  cruelty,  and  insufficient  food.  An  official 
investigation  with  sensational  results  is  expected." 

They  are  waking  up  to  these  cruelties  down  in  Texas.  We  have 
woke  them  up  everj-where.     We  have  done  a  •'  heap  "  of  good. 

It  has  been  a  benefit  to  the  whole  country,  and  I  claim  this  benefit, 
if  no  more,  for  3-our  labors  and  mine.  All  that  was  before  us  when 
we  began  was  the  necessity  of  a  change  in  administration  at  Tewks- 
bury.  And  with  me,  that  there  might  be  greater  economy,  and 
greater  comfort  with  greater  econom}-.  I  would  give  three  dollars 
where  one  dollar  is  given  now  rather  than  have  a  comfort  taken  away 
from  one  of  those  poor  creatures.  'As  it  has  been,  thej'  do  not  get 
the  worth  of  the  money  that  is  expended  on  them.  There  are  too 
many  officers  that  do  nothing  ;  too  many  matrons  just  out  of  school, 
only  fit  to  go  out  riding  with  Charles  Marsh  or  Tom  Marsh.     Call 


42 

that  little  chit,  who  was  up  here,  a  matron  ?  *  Pay  her  a  matron's 
wages  out  of  the  State's  funds  when  she  is  hardly  out  of  her  leading 
strings  ?  Let  us  have  ladies  who  have  reached  the  3'ears  of  discretion, 
and  WG  won't  want  so  many  of  them.  Why,  we  would  want  a 
thousand  such  as  some  they  employed  there  to  do  any  good  among  a 
lot  of  old  men  except  to  excite  their  passions.  What  we  began  this 
inquiry  for  has  been  accomplished.  The  Marshes  and  French  Joe 
are  gone,  and  the  Board  of  Health  and  Charity,  when  I  put  the 
responsibilit}-  of  keeping  the  Marshes  there,  did  what  they  knew  they 
should  and  must  do  to  get  rid  of  them  and  unload  them.  They  could 
and  would  not  bear  that  burden  a  moment.  I  knew  that  when  I  put 
it  upon  them.  The}'  were  responsible  men.  That's  why  they  made 
so  much  objection  to  taking  Tewksbury  almshouse,  for  they  knew  the 
moment  they  took  upon  them  the  duty  of  trustees  that  moment  the 
responsibility  came  upon  them,  and  then  they  must  turn  out  the 
Marshes,  and  they  must  strike  a  vital  blow  at  their  party.  There  can 
be  no  doubt  upon  this  subject.  We  have  now  got  a  different  manage- 
ment. Mr.  Brown  says  it  is  not  a  good  management.  Very  well. 
I  will  examine  that  as  soon  as  I  can  —  I  was  going  to  say,  as  soon 
as  I  get  rid  of  you,  gentlemen,  but  perhaps  I  had  better  say  as  soon 
as  you  get  rid  of  me  I  will  attend  to  that,  and  if  what  he  said  is  true, 
the  Governor  who  made  the  Board  of  Lunacy  and  Charity  trustees  of 
the  State  almshouse,  can  unmake  them ;  so  there  is  no  trouble.  All 
needed  reform  is  accomplished. 

Except  that  there  remains  something  that  I  hardly  care  to  speak 
of,  a  political  purpose,  I  am  done.  I  was  accused  of  having  my  own 
political  objects  in  this  matter.  How  was  I  going  to  get  them?  By 
doing  my  duty,  I  suppose.  I  don't  know  any  other  wa}^  I  was  to  do 
it,  and  is  not  that  a  good  way  to  accomplish  political  ends  ?  I  think 
it  is.  Do  my  honest  duty  by  the  State,  by  the  people,  and  especially 
in  behalf  of  poor  creatures  who  have  no  other  friends.  Most  of  them 
cannot  vote.  Wh}',  if  I  had  been  looking  for  votes  I  could  have  had 
the  Marshes  on  my  side  with  a  wink.  No  trouble  about  that.  They 
run  the  politics  up  in  my  neighborhood,  and  (turning  to  Tom  Marsh, 
Jr.,)  you  did  it  exceedingly  well,  su'.  But  I  could  not  do  that.  I 
am  not  on  that  side  ever.  God  made  me  in  only  one  way.  I  must 
be  always  with  the  under  dog  in  the  fight.  I  can't  help  it ;  I  can't 
change,  and  upon  the  whole  I  don't  want  to. 

*  Miss  Locke,  who  is  down  on  the  books  as  a  matron  at  $300  a  year  salary, 
testifies  that  within  some  months  after  she  left  school  she  was  employed  as  a 
matron  at  Tewksbury,  her  father  and  mother  both  being  tliere  as  officers.  She 
refused  on  her  oath  to  tell  her  age.  .  Whoever  heard  of  a  woman  before  refusing 
to  tell  her  age  because  she  was  too  yoimg.  She  was  only  past  fourteen  when  she 
left  school.     A  matron  indeed ! ! 


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